Trust
by rinny08
Summary: You can't go back to nothing after having everything.  Jeremy/Damon
1. Trust

_**A/N: So this is my first Vampire Diaries fic. Written mostly because Jeremy and Damon seem to keep getting kicked while they're down and because I don't like Rose. Jeremy should totally be Damon's special friend. **_**;-D**

_**Spoilers for everything up to and including "The Sacrifice", I guess? **_

_**For now this is a one shot, but if the plot bunny comes back or I feel like Damon and Jeremy need a little more lovin' in their lives, I might add a drabble here or there. **_

_**Also, reviews are my personal brand of crack. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.**_

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Damon was nursing his third drink of the night, staring into the fire and trying to muddle through how ridiculously _wrong_ today had been: Elena's suicide mission, Jeremy's half-baked plan, freaking Elijah still being alive and then _not_ killing them, Stefan trapped in the tomb with Katherine, and Bonnie being about as useful as a six-year-old waving a stick and saying 'abracadabra'. And, just because he needed more to worry about, the full moon would be rising in tomorrow night and he'd have a first-time werewolf to deal with too.

A knock on the door startled him out of his reverie and he pushed off the fireplace, crossing to the door and pulling it open. He didn't know who he'd been expecting (maybe Rose, after her less-than-impressive disappearing act this afternoon), but he was surprised to find Jeremy on his doorstep. He had a bandage over the bite on his neck and he was wearing one of his usual _I'm a lonely, angst-ridden teenager_ facial expressions.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?"

"Can I come in or what?" Jeremy asked gruffly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Last time I checked, you weren't the one who needed an invitation."

Jeremy sighed and brushed past Damon, walking directly into the living room and pouring himself a drink.

"Sure, make yourself at home, I don't mind at all." Damon said. He topped off his own drink and regarded Jeremy over the top of his glass. "If you're here, who's babysitting Elena?"

"I watched her knock back a shot glass full of NyQuil. She'll be out til tomorrow morning and then Bonnie's on it."

Damon didn't miss the way Jeremy's expression twisted when he said the witch's name, but he wasn't sure what to make of it yet. "Let me see your neck."

Jeremy probably should have hesitated, considering the last time Damon had been anywhere near his neck, he snapped it. But the teenager peeled off the bandage with a wince and angled his head so Damon could see it better.

Damon whistled through his teeth, "Jesus. We have to do something about that."

Jeremy frowned. "Why? It will heal just fine."

"Except that this town is _way_ too vampire conscious. You're not going to be able to pass that off as a hickey.

Jeremy rolled his eyes, "What did you have in mind?"

Damon bit into his own wrist, before offering the wound to Jeremy. Jeremy hesitated for a moment, but whatever compunctions he had, he got over them pretty quickly, his mouth latching on to Damon's wrist. There was a time Damon wouldn't have done this for anyone and now he was practically donating blood to heal every paper cut that crossed his path. Obviously Stefan was having a terrible influence on him. He pulled his arm away from Jeremy, watching as his wrist healed itself almost instantly. Jeremy's neck would take a little bit longer.

Jeremy dragged the back of his hand across his mouth. "Thanks."

Damon shrugged and brushed past Jeremy, dropping onto one of the sofas. "So, is this business or pleasure?"

Jeremy shrugged. "Does it really matter? From the looks of it, the only plans you have tonight are drinking and brooding."

Damon smirked, "And you just thought you'd check in on me?"

"Misery loves company."

"Oh, right, I'd forgotten. You're poor, misunderstood Jeremy Gilbert."

"Fuck you, you manipulative sociopath."

"Sticks and stones, Jeremy."

Jeremy drained the rest of his drink and sprawled next to Damon on the sofa. "Remember what you said, about how you spent all that time with your humanity turned off?" Damon didn't answer, but Jeremy continued anyway. "Do you wish you still were living that way?"

"What makes you think I'm not?"

"You're in love with my sister. If you're letting yourself feel love, then you've got to be feeling everything else too."

"Leave her out of this." Damon said coldly.

Jeremy shrugged, "Fine with me."

They sat in silence for a little while, but Damon answered Jeremy's question before long. "No. At first, it's great, being able to shut out everything. But once that disappears you're just…empty. Which, I'm sure you know, isn't actually preferable to feeling. I haven't flipped the switch, so to speak, in a few decades now."

"Have you wanted to?"

"Only once."

Jeremy was pretty sure he already knew the answer, but he couldn't help asking anyway. "When?"

"The night I killed you." Damon took another sip from his drink. "It's funny, really. Katherine and Elena both choosing Stefan didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. Probably because deep down I knew that the bad brother never gets the girl. But when I thought you were dead…I haven't felt that guilty in a long time."

"Why are you telling me this?"

Damon shrugged. "You asked. I can stop if you want."

Jeremy glanced over at Damon, "No. You don't have to. I kinda get the feeling you need somebody right now."

"I get the feeling you do too, or you wouldn't have shown up on my doorstep at one in the morning."

"Loneliness is a bitch."

"I'll drink to that," Damon said, raising his glass in Jeremy's direction and knocking back the rest of his drink.

Jeremy dropped his head to rest on the back of the couch. He sighed, staring up at the vaulted ceiling. "What are we going to do?"

"Are you asking me or God? Because you aren't likely to get an answer from either of us."

"No?" Jeremy turned his head to meet Damon's eyes.

"I've got no fucking idea. Give me somebody to torment and I can come up with at least eight different plans for that. The saving-and-protecting-people thing is all Stefan's territory."

"I don't know about that. You've saved Elena plenty of times."

"She's the exception to the rule."

"Isn't she always?" Jeremy rolled his eyes.

"Uh-oh. Do I detect some sibling rivalry going on?"

"You make it sound so childish."

"You are a child."

Jeremy scowled. "Maybe compared to you, old man."

"I only feel old," Damon shrugged. "As far as everybody else is concerned, I'm a twenty-one-year-old hottie."

"And such a modest one too."

"Modesty is overrated."

"You could do better, you know. Than Elena, I mean. I know you don't want to hear this, but she's never going to look further than Stefan and you'll always just be Stefan's older brother."

"I know that." Damon said hollowly. "But don't you think you should listen to your own advice? As far as Bonnie is concerned, you'll always just be Elena's little brother." It was a shot in the dark, but from the way Jeremy flinched Damon knew the remark had hit home.

"Yeah. I'm figuring that out."

They sat like that for a long time, both sprawled comfortably on the couch, drinks in hand. Damon wasn't used to being around people who were comfortable in his presence—even the people who didn't know he was a vampire still had the primal instincts to know there was something dangerous about him and it kept them on edge—so it was actually kind of refreshing sitting next to someone who didn't look like their skin was crawling from proximity to him. Jeremy had more reason than most to be wary of Damon, but here he was, sitting there casually like he did it all the time.

Jeremy studied Damon's profile. The artist in him was itching to draw Damon, but he was pretty sure he'd never be able to do the vampire justice. He really was too beautiful to be allowed. Without even realizing he was doing it, he reached out and curled his hand around the back of Damon's neck, his thumb stroking across Damon's pulse-point. He expected to be snapped at or pushed away, but instead Damon just tipped his head in Jeremy's direction, so Jeremy tugged gently and Damon moved closer until they were centimeters apart.

"This isn't a very good idea, Jer." Damon breathed, his eyes locked with the younger man's.

"Don't care," Jeremy said, closing the distance between them. Their lips brushed across each other tentatively, before Jeremy's grip tightened on Damon's neck and he pulled him closer, the kiss hungry and desperate. One of Damon's hands tangled into Jeremy's hair, and he grabbed a fistful of Jeremy's t-shirt with the other. Jeremy pulled Damon into his lap before tugging at the hem on Damon's t-shirt. They separated and Damon scrambled out of his shirt before helping Jeremy out of his own.

Damon's eyes took on a predatory gleam as he looked at Jeremy's bare chest. Jeremy's fingers danced down the length of Damon's spine, giving him chills. He leaned forward and captured Jeremy's mouth again. This kiss was slower and deeper and made Jeremy's toes curl (not that he would ever admit it).

Damon mouthed his way along Jeremy's jaw, down to the pulse point in his neck. He nipped at it playfully, not enough to break the skin, and Jeremy gasped, his hands tightening on Damon's hips.

"You can, you know." Jeremy whispered.

"Another time," Damon hissed in his ear. "Considering someone already almost drained you once today."

"You won't hurt me." Jeremy said with a shrug, and Damon reared back, the expression on his face unreadable. "What?" Jeremy frowned. "I trust you."

Damon wasn't sure if Jeremy was incredibly stupid or an expert flatterer or more naïve than he'd originally thought, but he decided he didn't care. Nobody trusted him. If Jeremy did, Damon wasn't going to turn his back on that. He kissed Jeremy again, softly this time.

"You know, I've got a bed upstairs that's infinitely more comfortable than this couch."

Jeremy grinned at him, "Does that line actually work on people?"

"You tell me." Damon smirked.

After a moment's consideration, Jeremy dropped a kiss on Damon's shoulder and said, "Lead the way."

"That's what I thought," Damon said, his expression smug.

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Damon woke to Jeremy using him as his own personal vampire pillow. A tiny voice somewhere in the back of his brain whispered something about being able to get used to this, but he shoved it aside quickly. He was not interested in getting attached. As if Jeremy knew what he was thinking, the younger man tightened his hold on Damon's waist, and nuzzled his face into Damon's neck.

"I should go," Jeremy groaned.

"You don't have to." Damon said, surprised how nonchalant he managed to make that sound.

"I do. I need to get home before Bonnie gets there." Jealousy flared in the pit of Damon's stomach at the mention of the witch's name. Okay, maybe he was already more attached than he'd intended. "Besides, Elena will be awake soon and if I'm not there to babysit her, she'll think up another suicide mission."

Damon sighed and rolled to pin Jeremy beneath him, leaving a trail of open-mouthed kisses from Jeremy's shoulder, across his collarbone, up the side of his neck, before capturing his lips.

Damon might be a manipulative sociopath, Jeremy thought, but he made it pretty easy to forget about all of that when he hit you with one hundred and forty-some years of kissing expertise all at once.

"Damon," Jeremy protested weakly. "I really have to go."

"Fine." Damon sighed heavily and rolled back onto his back, allowing Jeremy to crawl out of bed. Damon watched as Jeremy pulled his jeans on and searched the room in vain for his shirt. He gave up and walked over to Damon's dresser, stealing one of his t-shirts. It was too tight across the shoulders, but he shrugged and shot Damon a grin. He shoved his feet into his sneakers and sat on the edge of the bed to tie them, not protesting in the least when Damon slipped his arms around Jeremy's waist and pressed kisses to the side of his neck. Damon figured he could probably trust Jeremy not to tell anybody how clingy Damon could be in the morning.

Once he finished tying his shoelaces, Jeremy turned and kissed Damon again, much too briefly for both of their tastes. "Come over later," Jeremy said with a grin. "I'm sure we can find some time to ourselves while Elena spends the day pouting and whining."

With that, he gave Damon one last quick kiss, before heading for the door. Damon tried to come up with something vaguely sarcastic or clever to say, but the look Jeremy shot him over his shoulder before he crossed the threshold rendered Damon pretty much speechless. It was all blind trust mixed with post-coital glow, and Damon decided there were worse things in life than getting attached to Jeremy Gilbert.

Although he's going to have to come up with something snide and mean to say to Vampire Barbie, just so nobody gets the idea he's going soft.


	2. Lifeline

_**A/N: Thanks to everybody for your great responses to the first post! =**_**D**_** I'm not going to call this an official story just yet, as this is just a drabble sort of related to the first oneshot, but it could stand on it's own too. **_

_**No spoilers here.**_

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Damon ignored four phone calls from Jeremy before the boy showed up at the boarding house. Damon figured he shouldn't be surprised—showing up unannounced and walking in without knocking was quickly becoming Jeremy's M.O. Jeremy was taking his life into his hands every time he tried sneaking up on a vampire, but he was either too stupid to realize or he just didn't care. Damon had thought Jeremy had moved past his cavalier attitude towards life, but perhaps not.

"If I wanted to see you, I would have answered my phone." Damon said, his voice bored.

Jeremy shrugged and poured himself a drink. Damon probably ought to protest (Jeremy wasn't anywhere near legal, after all) but considering the other things the two of them got up to, underage drinking was the least of their worries. Besides, he was quickly learning that telling Jeremy Gilbert _not _to do something was the easiest way to make sure he did exactly that. Damon sneaked glances at the teenaged boy, who downed two drinks much more quickly than normal. Jeremy was halfway through the third when it occurred to Damon that something might be wrong.

He was next to Jeremy and had already pulled the tumbler out of the boy's hand before Jeremy could stop him. There were definitely perks to being a vampire.

"What's going on?" Damon asked, his eyes locking with Jeremy's. Jeremy could tell from the way Damon's pupils dilated and contracted quickly that he was trying to compel him into telling the truth.

"Nice try," Jeremy rolled his eyes and held up his right wrist, showing Damon his vervain bracelet.

"And I thought you trusted me." Damon smirked.

"Not to hurt me, sure." Jeremy shrugged. "But I'm not a total idiot, Damon."

"Neither am I. Tell me what's wrong with you."

"I'm fine. Bad day." Jeremy said, with what Damon was beginning to recognize was an air of practiced indifference. It was impressive, really, the number of people Jeremy had managed to trick into believing he didn't give a shit. Aunt Jenna, all those idiots at the high school, most of his teachers including Alaric, sometimes even Stefan and Elena—Jeremy was as much of a manipulator as Damon was, they just had different motives.

Damon shrugged. He wasn't going to press the issue. He wasn't Jeremy's boyfriend or his guidance counselor or his dad. They were sort of friends, but really just in it for the benefits, and Damon wasn't required to care about Jeremy's feelings. They would have sex regardless, and Damon was pretty sure they'd both be better off if they left feelings out of it entirely.

Damon pulled Jeremy against him, but Jeremy didn't exactly cooperate. Rather than let Damon start kissing him, he buried his face in Damon's neck and slipped his arms around Damon's waist. Damon thought about disentangling himself and making some snide comment about vampires and hugs and how they didn't mix, but Jeremy wasn't really hugging him. He was _clinging_, like he thought Damon was going to disappear. And it was weird. Because Jeremy worked really hard most of the time _not_ to be like this. Sure, he showed up without asking, but since the first night, he'd given up initiating. It was always Damon who dragged him into the nearest bedroom and started tearing at clothes, and Jeremy tagged along happily for the ride. There was probably something Freudian about it—Jeremy spent so much time rebelling that he needed somebody who took control without any room for argument. Although, that was veering dangerously close to S&M, which really wasn't Damon's style. He'd had a taste of that with Katherine and it had made his skin crawl and set his teeth on edge. Besides, Freud was full of shit anyway, right?

Damon didn't know how long Jeremy stood, holding on to him like a lifeline, but eventually Damon slipped his arms around Jeremy's waist and hugged back. There were no witnesses, so nobody could prove it happened.


	3. Fluke

_**A/N: Thank you to everyone who's been reviewing. I'm a total review whore, and it really makes my day reading what you all think about this little experiment of mine. =D**_

_**Still no real plot here, but I'm having so much fun with Damon and Jeremy. They're both so complex. Might try something from Jeremy's POV next, since we've spent a lot of time in Damon's head thus far.**_

_**Oooh, also because I haven't done this yet: I don't own any of this. I just manipulate these fictional characters for fun.**_

_**Also, no spoilers in this one either (I don't think…)**_

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Damon wasn't sure when being alone had started to bother him. Vampires weren't supposed to be afraid of anything, especially not quiet, empty houses. He had spent his entire life alone, practically, either avoiding or stalking Stefan, depending on the decade, but somewhere between moving into the boarding house with his brother and now, he'd gotten accustomed to companionship and noise (as much noise as a vampire made, anyway) and something other than deafening quiet.

Damon flipped the switch on the stupid iPod docking system Stefan had gotten him for Christmas. Stefan had been totally sucked into the Cult of Apple, enticed by shiny metal and the ability to carry his entire music library in his pocket. And Damon could sort of see the appeal, but he missed vinyl. You hadn't heard anything until you'd heard it on vinyl.

Damon just let his songs shuffle, but it wasn't long before he was tuning them out, focused solely on the empty house. Occasionally The Rolling Stones or The Who or some Dylan or Springsteen song would jar into his consciousness, and for a moment he would remember how _good_ music used to be, but it wouldn't be long before he was using his entirely-too-effective hearing to listen to a mouse chewing on a shoe box in Stefan's closet and the ticking of the grandfather clock upstairs in the hallway.

It wasn't that he was afraid. He knew he could take anything that tried to come through the front door (it wasn't a full moon, so he didn't need to worry about the werewolves). It was more…anxiety. The quiet made him tense and jumpy, and when the mouse scuttled away, probably back into the wall, Damon nearly spilled his drink. He shuddered to think what would happen when the clock chimed on the hour.

His iPhone (another of Stefan's purchases—Damon wondered idly if his brother had a shopping addiction) sat on the arm of the couch, and Damon glanced down at the screen every other minute or so. It would be so easy. All he had to do was scroll through his recent calls and tap Jeremy's number. Jeremy probably wouldn't even mock him about it. He'd shrug, say okay, hang up and show up at the boarding house within fifteen minutes. But it was the principle of the thing. Damon didn't _need_ to see Jeremy. He wasn't hungry, he wasn't particularly horny (not that it had ever mattered to Jeremy—he was a teenage boy, after all), and it wasn't like Jeremy had any other reason to come over besides sex.

Damon picked up his phone and stared at it for a moment, before slipping it into his pocket and getting to his feet. It was a Friday night and he wasn't interested in spending it sitting in his living room. Stefan was out pretending to be a normal teenager with Elena, so Damon figured he could go pretend to be a normal twenty-one-year-old and hang out in a bar. It had _nothing_ to do with the empty house.

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As he'd expected, the Grill was packed. It was loud, but once he was seated at the bar with his usual scotch, it was easy to let the constant chatter and whatever awful music was pumping through the speakers settle into a low drone. He didn't feel the need to make conversation with anyone and everyone seemed content to leave him alone. He could hear Vampire Barbie laughing somewhere across the room, probably surrounded by her usual harem of groupies and lackeys. Werewolf Tyler was playing pool with Oblivious Matt, and Damon wondered if Matt was getting any closer to not being so oblivious. He doubted it. He was fairly certain the Aw-shucks All-American Boy Next Door was just as stupid as he looked.

Damon wasn't looking for Jeremy. He didn't need to. It only took him one glance when he'd come through the door to determine that the younger Gilbert was not present. Elena and Stefan were on a double date with Bonnie and her Boy-Witch Wonder, and Alaric and Jenna were huddled together in one of the booths, so Damon would put money on the fact that Jeremy was at home with his sketchbook or his computer.

He wondered if Jeremy was lonely; if nights like this, when the majority of his peers were out partying or just hanging out and Jeremy was home alone, bothered him. Of course, Damon already knew the answer to that. If Jeremy was lonely tonight, he would have shown up at the boarding house hours ago. He wasn't shy about admitting when he wanted to see Damon (or maybe just wanted to see _someone_) and tonight wasn't one of those nights.

Damon sighed, frustrated. Being here, surrounded by people and noise, didn't make any difference. He was still alone and it shouldn't bother him, but it did.

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Damon stood on the Gilberts' porch, feeling stupid and staring at the doorbell like he was expecting it to ring itself. After five minutes, he finally reached out and pressed it, part of him hoping Jeremy was already asleep or wearing headphones or temporarily deaf.

Jeremy was none of those things. He answered the door in his pajamas, carrying a bowl of cereal and cocked his head to the side curiously upon seeing Damon on the porch.

"Why did you ring the bell?" Jeremy frowned.

"Because I wasn't breathing loud enough out here for you to hear me." Damon said sarcastically.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "You could have just walked in. I don't care."

Damon followed Jeremy into the house. "You're home alone in a town with more than it's fair share of monsters and you don't lock your doors?"

Jeremy shot him a _don't be stupid _look. "It isn't the full moon, the warlocks don't seem to have anything against us at the moment and all the vampires out there except you and Stefan and Caroline need an invitation. Why?" Jeremy smirked. "Are you worried about me?"

"No." It came out of his mouth too quickly. He realized too late that it was probably a question better left without an answer, considering even his negative response had given far too much away.

Jeremy's lips twitched in amusement and he shoved a spoonful of Cheerios into his mouth. Damon followed him into the den, where the TV was on. Jeremy settled on the couch and Damon stood for a long moment, uncertain. Jeremy laughed and reached out to grab Damon's hand, tugging him down onto the leather couch.

Damon sat stiffly—he didn't know how to interact with Jeremy here, in his house, without sex as a guideline. Because Damon was pretty sure sex wasn't on offer tonight. Jeremy was still inhaling his cereal like he thought it was going to run away, and he was laughing along with the movie, and it was almost like Damon wasn't there. Then, without warning, Jeremy set the empty cereal bowl on the coffee table, and snuggled against Damon's side, dropping his head to rest on Damon's shoulder. Damon relaxed and after a moment's hesitation, he snaked his arm around Jeremy's waist.

The movie was especially stupid—Damon missed the screwball comedies of the 1930s. He almost suggested he and Jeremy watch _His Girl Friday_ or _The Philadelphia Story_ or even _Some Like It Hot_ the next time they did this, before he remembered that this was just a fluke, not something they actually did.


	4. Breakfast

_**A/N: Me again! I just can't resist these two. They're so adorable. **_**; )**

_**Thanks so much for all your reviews and I hope everybody has a Happy New Year!**_

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Normally, Jeremy woke before dawn, pulled on his clothes and snuck out, but today the sun was high in the sky when he awoke. For a moment, he panicked, certain he was missing school, before remembering it was a Saturday. Normally Jeremy would worry about Aunt Jenna or Elena walking into his room and finding his bed empty, but Elena (who had become a cheerleader again-another one of her attempts to pretend she could still have a normal life while dating a vampire) was off at a competition and Aunt Jenna and Alaric had decided to take a weekend trip down to Charleston and since Jeremy had kept himself out of trouble recently, Aunt Jenna had decided to trust him to stay home alone. He wondered how she would feel knowing he was currently snuggled up in bed with Trouble himself.

"Shouldn't you have scurried off by now?" Damon asked, his voice rough from sleep.

"Probably." Jeremy said, and he pulled away, only to have Damon's arms snake around him again and haul him back to the middle of the bed. "But I thought you might like breakfast."

Damon's eyes narrowed, like he was waiting for the catch, but instead Jeremy slipped his arms around Damon's waist and rolled, pulling the vampire on top of him. He angled his head, giving Damon full access to his neck. When Damon didn't do anything, Jeremy glanced at the vampire's face, a little confused by his hesitation.

Damon was looking at him with an expression somewhere between reverence and amazement, and when his eyes met Jeremy's, he lowered his head until his lips brushed lightly against Jeremy's sensitive neck. Jeremy's heart began to race, and he hissed slightly when Damon's fangs broke the skin.

It wasn't like they hadn't done this before. But it was the first time Jeremy had offered Damon his blood without sex involved. Until now, it had been all about the sex and the blood had just been sort of a perk for Damon. And if Jeremy was being totally honest with himself, it wasn't like he didn't enjoy it.

When Katherine had been draining him, it had fucking hurt, because she was pretty much trying to rip his throat out at the same time. But with Damon, it was different. It still hurt (there was no way around that—sharp fangs breaking through skin and muscle and arteries was _always_ going to hurt) but Damon was almost…apologetic about it. One of his hands stroked up and down the side of Jeremy's torso, the other tangled gently in his hair, holding his head still so Damon's fangs didn't do any more damage than necessary. And Damon never took enough blood to make him black out, or even woozy.

Damon sat up when he was done, straddling Jeremy's waist, and Jeremy watched as his tongue flicked out across his lips, gathering the last drops of blood there.

Jeremy's hands curled lightly around Damon's hips, and he smiled lazily up at the vampire.

"How's that for breakfast in bed?"

Damon laughed, more loudly than Jeremy had been expecting, his face lighting up with a grin. Jeremy was pretty sure it was the first time he'd ever heard a genuine laugh from Damon. He was used to mocking and sarcasm and witty comments, but never delight. Because delighted was really the only way to describe the expression on Damon's face.

"Delicious." Damon said, before leaning down to kiss Jeremy. "You're welcome to stay for lunch."


	5. Escape

_**A/N: This was originally the beginning of part four, but it just didn't fit there and it isn't going to work with what I have planned for the next part, so it gets to be a little chapter all on it's own.**_

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Jeremy was grateful Damon slept so deeply. It allowed him to sneak out of bed at this ungodly hour and creep across the room to his bag without fear of waking the vampire. He dug through his bag, quietly extracting his sketchbook and a pencil, wishing he'd thought ahead and packed some charcoal.

He'd been itching to draw Damon for months now—the artist in him couldn't look at something so beautiful without some kind of reverence—but he'd been strangely afraid, both of how Damon might react if Jeremy asked his permission and of not being able to do him justice. Lying awake while Damon slept, though, Jeremy couldn't resist any longer. He wanted to capture the way Damon's messy hair fell across his forehead and the way he slept with his hand under his face like a child and the way his eyelashes rested against his cheekbones.

For the first few minutes, sketching a rough outline of the bare-chested, sleeping vampire, Jeremy felt like a voyeur, sitting in the dim room, watching Damon sleep and drawing him without his permission. But then, the world shrunk down to nothing more than his fingers wrapped around the pencil and the rough scrape of graphite against paper. It was an escape no drug had ever been able to offer him, and he'd tried as many as he'd been able to get his hands on.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been sketching when he noticed Damon was awake, looking back at him somewhat curiously. Jeremy kept expecting for the vampire to sit up or say something, interrupting the perfect moment Jeremy had his heart set on capturing, but he never did. He stayed perfectly still, except for his eyes, which followed the movements of Jeremy's hand across the paper.

When Jeremy finished, he flipped his sketchbook closed and dropped it back into his bag.

"Considering I'm the vampire, aren't I supposed to be the creepier one here?" Damon smirked as Jeremy slid back into bed. "How often do you draw me when I'm sleeping?"

"Why?" Jeremy grinned. "Creeped out?"

Damon shook his head and brushed his lips across Jeremy's jaw.

"That was the first time." Jeremy said softly.

"Do I get to see?" Damon asked, his hands beginning to roam Jeremy's body.

"No."

"That doesn't seem fair."

"Hasn't anybody ever told you, Damon?" Jeremy smirked. "Life isn't fair."

An expression Jeremy didn't recognize crossed Damon's face, but before he could determine what it was, Damon's lips captured his, and Jeremy closed his eyes. He was beginning to think Damon was a better escape than drawing and drugs combined.


	6. Gratitude

_**A/N: Not totally sure how I feel about this installment. Although if you squint really hard and tilt your head to the side, you might spot the feeble beginnings of a plot.**_

_**Thank you so much to everyone who has been reviewing. Every single review puts a smile on my face.**_

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"Damon's been pretty quiet recently," Elena commented. "Ever since Rose…"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Stefan said darkly.

"What do you mean?" Damon could picture the pout on her face—it was one of Elena's expressions that reminded him most of Katherine.

Stefan and Elena obviously didn't realize he was home, or they wouldn't be talking about him so freely. He hadn't been intending to eavesdrop, but he'd been walking past Stefan's room when he heard his name. He was curious what his brother had to say, since he and Stefan hadn't spent much time together over the past few months.

"I've been keeping an eye on his stocks of blood downstairs."

"Is he stealing more than usual? I haven't heard anything on the news about the blood banks—

"No," Stefan cut her off. "He's barely touched it."

For a moment, both Elena and Stefan were silent. Then, the girl spoke again. "You think it's another Caroline situation? He's compelling someone to be his personal blood donor?"

Stefan's tone was skeptical. "I'm not sure. Damon's always preferred the thrill of the hunt."

"If that's true, don't you think we would have heard about at attack?"

Damon was getting annoyed, listening to them. If he were attacking random strangers, he wouldn't be so stupid as to let them walk away with their memories intact afterwards. Stefan wasn't entirely incorrect; Damon had once enjoyed hunting, chasing down a terrified victim. But he had learned with Jeremy that freely offered blood, without any hunting or terror or compelling, was surprisingly better. No wonder Katherine had wanted to keep him and Stefan around for so long. There was something extremely addictive about being given something, rather than taking it by force.

Unable to stop himself, he pushed Stefan's door open and sent it colliding into the wall. Elena jumped and Stefan whirled around. They both looked so alarmed that they'd been caught out, talking about Damon behind his back, that he couldn't help the feral smile that spread across his face.

"All your little theories are so interesting," Damon said, his tone bored, "but I feel the need to inform you that you're so far off the mark, you're actually embarrassing yourselves."

Damon leaned casually against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Damon," Stefan said in his holier-than-thou, you'd-better-tell-me-what's-going-on voice.

"Stefan," Damon mocked.

Stefan's eyes narrowed. "What are you up to?"

"Who says I'm up to anything?"

"Because, you lying, manipulative asshole, you're _always_ up to something." Elena's voice was laced with so much venom that both Stefan and Damon gaped at her for a moment.

It had occurred to Damon once, how useful Jeremy could be to tip the scales in his favor in the Damon-Stefan-Elena love triangle. It had been months ago now; a moment after considering it, he'd abandoned the idea altogether. He and Jeremy understood each other, and the idea of using him as a pawn in some sordid scheme made Damon's stomach turn.

He had several snide remarks ready, but he was suddenly furious. He turned on his heel and stormed down the stairs. When he reached the front door, he wrenched it open so quickly the hinges screamed in protest. He slammed it closed behind him, making the windows rattle. If he ran, he could be at the Gilberts' in two minutes.

* * *

It only took Jeremy ten seconds to know something was wrong. Damon climbed through his bedroom window, his chest heaving and his eyes wild. Jeremy hadn't seen him like this since the night Damon had broken his neck. He should be afraid, or at least a little worried about what would put Damon in this sort of mood, but he wasn't. Damon grabbed him by the front of his hoodie and hauled him to his feet, their lips meeting in a kiss that was hard and desperate.

Jeremy was torn between giving Damon what he wanted and trying to calm him down. A few months ago, he would have just given in and let Damon fuck whatever was bothering him out of his system—that was _how_ they'd started all of this anyway. Instead, he pulled his head back and met Damon's eyes for a long moment. Damon stared back at him, angry and confused. Tentatively, Jeremy wrapped his arms around Damon, holding the shorter man against his chest. Damon struggled against Jeremy's hold, but without much conviction. They both knew he was stronger—if he really wanted to break free, he would be able to. After a minute, Damon relaxed, his forehead dropping to rest on Jeremy's shoulder. Jeremy stroked the back of Damon's head soothingly, and the vampire relaxed even further.

"Want to talk about it?" Jeremy asked softly.

"No."

"Okay."

They stood silently for a long time, but eventually Damon did begin to talk. "I overheard Stefan and Elena discussing me today. Apparently even good behavior is suspicious."

"No offense or anything, but aren't you used to that by now, babe?" The term of endearment slipped off of Jeremy's tongue so easily, he didn't even realize he'd said it. "It is Stefan and Elena we're talking about here."

Damon stepped out of Jeremy's embrace and sat on the edge of his bed. "Of course I'm used to it. But I don't have to be particularly happy about it."

"No," Jeremy agreed. "You don't."

"He's never going to change his mind about me." Damon said softly. Jeremy stepped closer and rested his hands lightly on Damon's shoulders, his fingertips tracing the shoulder seams on Damon's leather jacket. Damon leaned forward, burying his face against Jeremy's warm chest and looping his arms around Jeremy's waist.

"Screw Stefan," Jeremy said, more vehemently than he'd intended. He wasn't used to seeing a vulnerable, hurt Damon and part of him wanted to march over to the Salvatore boardinghouse and punch Stefan in the face. "Who gives a fuck what he thinks anyway? I mean, he's immortal and he chooses to spend most of his free time in high school. Obviously his judgment is questionable."

Damon chuckled weakly into Jeremy's hoodie, and when he lifted his face to look at the younger man, the wild look was gone from his eyes. He still looked hurt, but at least he didn't look like he was ready to go on a murder spree.

Damon pulled Jeremy down onto the bed with him and kissed him lightly a few times. "Thanks," he whispered.

Jeremy shrugged. Damon expressing gratitude was definitely new, but Jeremy wasn't about to make things worse by pointing that out. Instead, he pressed the length of his body against Damon's, offering him comfort that was becoming second nature to the two of them.


	7. Jealousy

Damon didn't make a habit of visiting the Grill on a Saturday afternoon. It was always too crowded, filled with teenagers laughing and goofing off like they were in an advert for acne medication. But he was avoiding Stefan, so staying at home wasn't an option. He was sitting at a booth in the corner, honing his long-distance compelling skills (so far he'd made Oblivious Matt drop a whole stack of dishes and had some blonde chick throw her drink on her date for no apparent reason) when Jeremy walked through the door, closely followed by a smiling Bonnie.

Damon gave up on trying to make the bartender refill his drink for free and he turned his attention to Jeremy and Bonnie. They were just playing pool, but it was obvious to Damon that Jeremy had turned the charm on—he was all smiles and jokes, teasing Bonnie about her inability to play pool. Damon hated that little witch, with her self-righteous attitude and her dimpled smile and her hand on Jeremy's arm.

He watched them for a few minutes, his blood boiling and his anger rising with every single one of Bonnie's stupid giggles and each of Jeremy's smiles. He was surprised how long it took Jeremy to notice him, considering he was staring holes in the back of his head, but when his eyes finally did fall on Damon, he was wearing his usual bored, blank, I-don't-give-a-shit expression. Damon fucking hated that practiced indifference.

He stood up and forced himself to walk out of the Grill, rather than doing something he would ultimately regret, like stabbing Bonnie in the chest with a pool cue. Damon was pretty sure he was the only one who would appreciate the irony of a vampire putting a stake through someone else's heart.

He wondered how long it would take for Jeremy to show up at the boardinghouse, sheepish and apologetic. Damon gave him until sometime tonight.

* * *

He was only half right. Jeremy did show up that evening, but he wasn't remotely sheepish or apologetic. He poured himself a drink and didn't immediately offer up any kind of explanation.

"Did you have a nice afternoon?" Damon asked snidely, his mood still ugly and black.

"It was great, thanks for asking." Jeremy smirked.

Damon made a growling noise, low in his throat. This wasn't _right_. Everything was jumbled and backwards. Jeremy was supposed to feel insecure and jealous while Damon was the one who was supposed to be flippant and amused by Jeremy's theatrics.

"Very funny, Jeremy." Damon said, his voice cold.

"What do you want, Damon?" Jeremy snapped. "Would you like me to apologize for spending an afternoon with my friend?"

"You and I both know she isn't just a friend."

"True. But there's nothing stopping me from seeing whoever I want to."

Damon was on his feet and in Jeremy's face before the teenager had time to blink. Frustratingly, Jeremy didn't even look intimidated by Damon's proximity or Damon's hand around his throat. Damon wasn't squeezing at all, but he _could_ and that was the point.

"Are you sure about that?" Damon hissed.

"Last time I checked, Damon, nobody said anything about being exclusive."

Damon's fingers tightened infinitesimally, but he knew Jeremy felt it from the way the boy's eyes widened.

"I don't share." Damon growled.

"Aw, do you want to be my boyfriend?" Jeremy taunted.

Everything clicked into place and Damon let go of Jeremy's neck as if the boy's skin had burned him. "You did it on purpose."

Jeremy smirked. He hooked his fingers in the belt loops of Damon's jeans and tugged the smaller man towards him. Jeremy's mouth burned a trail of hot, open-mouthed kisses up the side of Damon's neck.

"You manipulative little fucker," Damon said, his voice losing its malice. "You _liked_ seeing me jealous?"

"No." Jeremy pulled back, and his eyes were filled with raw honesty. "But at least now I know you think I'm somebody worth being jealous over."

Damon _hated_ being manipulated more than anything. But there was something about the expression on Jeremy's face, insecurity mixed with honesty and a little bit of the sheepishness he'd been hoping for earlier, that pretty much eradicated his anger.

"That may be the stupidest thing you've _ever_ done." Damon said, but he slipped his hands into the back pockets of Jeremy's jeans and pulled the teenager closer. "Don't try to manipulate me again." Damon warned.

Jeremy surged forward, his lips capturing Damon's hungrily. "I won't," he said against Damon's mouth, "Promise."

"To answer your question," Damon dropped his voice to a whisper. "Maybe."

It took Jeremy far too long to realize what question he'd even asked Damon.


	8. Blame

_**A/N: Trying out Stefan's POV in this installment. God, he's a know-it-all, isn't he? **_

_**Thank you so much to everyone who's been reviewing. I'm absolutely humbled and blown away by the response this fic has been getting.**_

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Stefan wasn't sure if Damon didn't care, or just thought he was an idiot. He assumed it was probably the latter, but it was hard to tell with Damon. Stefan had known about Damon's…interest in Jeremy for almost as long as it had been going on—it would have been impossible to hide it. He'd heard the two of them talking in Damon's bedroom one night and since then had been doing his best to monitor the situation. He hadn't told Elena yet, because he wasn't sure what exactly to tell her. He'd been waiting for weeks now for Damon to get bored and find someone else, but whatever was going on between Damon and Jeremy wasn't sticking to Damon's usual pattern. Even when they'd been human, Stefan remembered Damon being extremely methodic. He rarely did anything impulsive, even if he wanted it to appear otherwise, and although he enjoyed wrecking havoc and creating chaos, he kept his personal life fairly well ordered. He chose to spend his time with people he could control (like Caroline) or people who mattered very little to him (like Rose). Considering that Katherine had not remotely fit into either of those molds, Stefan had learned to be wary of anyone who broke Damon's pattern.

And Jeremy definitely did not follow precedent. He was a man, for one, which wasn't unheard of for Damon but was certainly not the norm. Jeremy was stubborn too, not the type to let anyone control him and Damon obviously cared about him. It was the only reason Stefan could find that explained why Damon had kept Jeremy around for months now.

But because it was Damon, it was possible (likely, even) that Jeremy meant nothing. He was a pretty boy, a willing blood donor, maybe even part of one of Damon's plots. So much of it seemed too convenient. Jeremy was Elena's brother, one of the few people in the world Elena loved and would do anything for, and Stefan worried that Damon was going to use Jeremy against Elena. He didn't trust his brother, hadn't trusted him for one hundred and forty-five years, and he couldn't let whatever Damon was planning happen. Elena would never forgive him if she discovered he found out about Jeremy and Damon and never did anything, especially if things ended badly. And Stefan couldn't see any other way that they would end. Everything Damon touched eventually withered and died.

He found his brother nursing a drink and staring into the fire. It was spring now, and the fire was unnecessary, but Stefan knew Damon liked the flames.

"No Jeremy tonight?" Stefan said, deciding a direct approach was the only way to handle this.

Damon turned around slowly, his expression unreadable. "How long have you known?"

Stefan shrugged, "A few months."

Damon arched an eyebrow. "Sure took your time saying something."

"I've been keeping an eye on you two. Trying to figure it out."

Damon scowled. "There's nothing to figure out."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Of course you aren't," Damon muttered under his breath, but Stefan heard him.

"Can you blame me? I know you better than anyone. You're keeping him around because he's a warm body, maybe you're going to use him against Elena, but you'll tire of him sooner or later and then you'll toss him aside, just like all the others."

"You don't know the first thing about me." Damon snarled.

"Of course I do. I learned it years ago: never trust you."

"Do you know something I've never understood, baby brother?" Damon crossed his arms over his chest. "I never made this choice. _You_ decided to complete the transformation, _you_ decided I needed to as well, _you _made me what I am. And somehow I'm always the bad guy, I'm always the one out to hurt everyone around me, when all of this is _your_ fault. Katherine wanted you, Elena wants you, but Jeremy wants _me_. And it will be a cold day in hell before I let you ruin that too."

Damon couldn't help but feel satisfied, watching as Stefan opened and closed his mouth a few times, gaping like a fish.

"You can't blame me for everything that's happened over the past hundred and forty-five years."

"Maybe not. But I definitely don't blame myself anymore."

With that, Damon turned on his heel and strode out of the cavernous living room, leaving Stefan behind.

Stefan watched his brother go, beginning to feel the guilt set in. He had been wrong. Again. He shouldn't be surprised, he was usually wrong about Damon. But this…this wasn't at all what he had been expecting. He'd prepared himself for cold, cavalier Damon and instead got a Damon he hadn't seen since they were human. He had spent the last century and a half trying to reconcile the heartless vampire with the brother who had played football with him and taught him how to dance and had been able to charm a pretty girl within minutes with his rakish smile and his quick wit. Damon still wasn't that man, he probably never would be again and Stefan was beginning to accept that it was his fault. He had destroyed his brother, turned him into a guilt-ridden and heartbroken monster and the ensuing years had only made things worse.

Until now. Somehow, Jeremy Gilbert had slipped right under their noses and wormed his way into Damon's heart. And Stefan couldn't help thinking it was maybe the best thing that had ever happened to Damon. Although he didn't look forward to trying to make Elena understand that.


	9. Confrontations

_**A/N: I meant to have this up earlier today, but I've been working on my last assignment of the semester for my creative writing class all day. **_

_**I feel the need to preface this chapter with the disclaimer that I don't hate Elena (I actually think she's one of the least pathetic female characters in the whole vampire craze going on at the moment—don't even get me **__**started**** on **__**Bella and Sookie…), and I've been known to ship Delena in my day, but for the purposes of this fic (or this chapter, at any rate), I'm focusing on Elena's…less positive qualities, shall we say. **_

_**Okay, enough from me. Most of you probably haven't read this note anyway. **_**;)

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Jeremy pushed his chair away from his desk, sitting up and stretching. His eyes were tired from staring at his computer screen for too long, and his shoulders ached. But his English paper was done two days early, and secretly he was pretty proud of that. He was about to shove his feet into a pair of sneakers and walk over to the boardinghouse, but just as he stood, a door slammed downstairs. Before he could figure out what was going on, Elena was in his room, and she was simultaneously smacking the back of his head and tugging the hood of his sweatshirt aside, trying to get a good look at his neck. They both knew what she was looking for, and she found it pretty quickly: a dark bruise, just barely covering two small punctures.

Obviously she knew, otherwise she wouldn't have looked. Jeremy's fingers were itching to grab his phone to try to warn Damon (if he wasn't already getting similar treatment from Stefan), but Elena still had a firm grip on his hoodie.

"I can't believe you, Jer! Of all the stupid things you've done over the past year, this is the worst."

Jeremy wrenched himself away from her. "Just so we're on the same page, what stupid thing am I doing right now?"

"Damon!" She screeched. "Why would you _ever_ think sleeping with him was a good idea? _And_ you're letting him feed off of you!"

Jeremy crossed his arms over his chest. "Uh, last time I checked Elena, you and Stefan were doing the exact same things."

"I'm not feeding Stefan." Elena snapped. "And it's different."

"Why?" Jeremy scowled.

"Because it's Damon." Elena glared up at him. "He's just using you to get close to me."

"I'm so fucking sick of this," Jeremy snarled. "The world doesn't revolve around you, Elena. You don't factor into what Damon and I have at all."

"What you and Damon have?" Elena scoffed. "You and Damon don't _have _anything. He's just using you. If you didn't wear your vervain bracelet all the time, I'd say he was compelling you."

"He's not using me. He didn't seek me out or try to manipulate me into being part of one of his schemes. I went to him." Jeremy fumbled with the bracelet around his wrist, eventually managing to get it off. He tossed it at his sister. "I don't need that. I trust him."

"That's a mistake." Elena's expression became haughty. "What about your Gilbert ring? Do you still need that?"

He knew she was trying to trap him. It wasn't going to work. Jeremy pulled the ring off and set it on his desk. "Not around Damon, no."

Elena stared at him for a long moment, before lifting her chin stubbornly. "Fine. Have it your way. But don't expect any sympathy from me when this all comes crashing down around you."

* * *

Damon wasn't waiting for Jeremy, exactly. But it was eight-thirty on a Saturday night, and the teenager had yet to show up, which was a little strange, but Damon wasn't _worried_, although he knew Stefan had told Elena today, which meant Elena had probably thrown a temper tantrum before going home to try to shout some sense into Jeremy.

When he heard footsteps behind him, he said, "You're late."

"I didn't realize you were expecting me."

Damon whirled around and for a moment he was certain it was Katherine. It wasn't just that Elena was her doppelganger or that the human girl had curled her hair and was wearing skintight black jeans and a leather jacket. It was the almost…predatory expression on her face.

"What do you want, Elena?"

She stood in front of him, and looked up at him with Bambi eyes. "I want you to leave my brother alone."

Damon snorted. "Not going to happen."

She stepped closer, pressing herself against him, and Damon couldn't help thinking that she was too small, too thin, too delicate. Damon had begun to appreciate tall and broad and solid much more than petite and soft these days.

"I can make it worth your while," she hissed, her voice dropping to what Damon figured she thought was a seductive whisper. It would be so _easy_ to let this happen. And he couldn't deny that there was a small part of him that did want it, just a little bit. But this wasn't _how_ it should be. He had determined a long time ago that he only wanted Elena if she wanted him too. And she didn't. She was trying to protect Jeremy—albeit in a rather twisted way—from Big Bad Vampire Damon, and while Damon appreciated her efforts, it just wasn't going to work.

He stepped away from her, and she blinked up at him in surprise. "I know what I want, Elena, and it's not you."

Her face arranged itself into a scowl and she crossed her arms over her chest. "This isn't the way it's supposed to be." She snapped. "You're not supposed to be interested in _him_. You told me you loved me."

"And you told me you would only ever want Stefan." Damon shot back.

"That didn't mean I wanted you to start sleeping with my brother."

Damon rolled his eyes. "It's not enough to have Stefan at your beck and call, you want to be the center of my universe too."

"It's not like that," Elena protested feebly.

"Of course it is. You miss the attention. I hate to break it to you, princess, but you had your chance already."

Damon brushed past her and out the front door, feeling freer than he had in a long time.


	10. Education

_**A/N: I'm going to apologize in advance, because the part of my brain that's a Film Studies major went a little crazy with this chapter, as well as the music snob in me…oh dear.**_

_**Also, on a semi-unrelated note, writing this fic has caused me to spend an inordinate amount of time on YouTube watching interviews with Ian Somerhalder in the name of research. His interpretation of Damon as Mick Jagger meets Cary Grant vaguely comes into play here (although really only in the general music-and-movie theme I've got going on).**_

**_And thank you to everybody who's reviewing. I've said it before, but y'all really make my day. =_D**

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"If we're doing this boyfriend thing, you need to develop better taste in movies. That was terrible." Damon complained, as the credits rolled on whatever mindless comedy Jeremy had insisted they watch.

"What would you prefer? Dracula? Interview With A Vampire? Nosferatu?"

Damon grinned, "Ten points to the kid for knowing about a German Expressionist silent film from the 1920s." At Jeremy's confused expression, Damon shrugged. "I audited a couple film studies classes at NYU back in the nineties. But no, I don't consider any of those movies particularly good. Keanu Reeves killed any hope Dracula had, same for Christian Slater in Interview, and Nosferatu was an unauthorized Dracula rip-off."

"I don't need to hear your thesis on vampire pop culture," Jeremy teased. "Just tell me what movie you want to watch next time."

"Come over tomorrow night." Damon said. It was strange to be inviting Jeremy, since the boy usually just showed up.

"Okay," Jeremy grinned. "But if I have to develop my taste in movies, we've gotta work on your taste in music. You haven't listened to anything new since, what? The Rolling Stones?"

Damon elbowed Jeremy in the ribs, "Nirvana, thank you very much. I'm telling you though, Cobain took the good music with him when he died."

"Bullshit. You're just stubborn."

"And you aren't, Mr. It's Not Funny If It Doesn't Have Ferrell, Sandler or Stiller?"

Jeremy laughed, "I'm willing to be proved wrong, so you'd better be too."

Damon rolled his eyes and leaned forward to press a kiss to Jeremy's lips, before pulling away and jumping out of his bedroom window before the teenager could protest. Now that they didn't have to be quite as sneaky, Damon reveled in the teasing a little bit more than he did before, when everything between them was rushed and crammed into what little time they could steal when Elena and Stefan weren't around.

On his walk home, he was already mentally flipping through his movie collection to decide where best to begin Jeremy's film appreciation education.

* * *

When Jeremy arrived at the boardinghouse the next night, he handed Damon a flash drive.

"The first step in your music education," Jeremy grinned. "Keep an open mind."

Damon took the flash drive. "Is this your generation's version of a mix tape, then?"

"Probably. What was it back in your day, babe? A dance card?"

"How should I know? I never courted anyone properly, much to my father's chagrin." Damon smirked, but Jeremy could see a flicker of something he couldn't quite place in his eyes. Regret, maybe.

"I was promised a movie night," Jeremy reminded him, and he followed Damon up the stairs into a room he'd never been in, but discovered quickly it was basically a home theater.

Jeremy whistled between his teeth. "Jesus. Stefan buys electronics like it his job."

"I know," Damon flashed him a grin that made Jeremy's heart hammer against his ribcage. Naturally, the vampire heard it and his grin widened.

Damon selected a DVD from the cabinet in the corner and dropped the disc into the player, before he and Jeremy got comfortable on the wide leather sofa.

"What are we watching?"

"Bringing Up Baby."

"Never heard of it."

"I'm not surprised, kid." Damon rolled his eyes. "It's a classic. Most people would probably try and start out with something like Casablanca, but you're definitely not ready for that yet. Besides, I think Bogart is overrated anyway. Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn are comedic gold."

"I understood maybe a quarter of that."

"Just watch the movie." Damon slipped his arm around Jeremy's waist and pulled him closer.

Jeremy had started out with the intention to dislike _Bringing Up Baby_. It was in black and white and the premise seemed utterly ridiculous (who thinks it's a good idea to keep a leopard as a pet anyway?), but about ten minutes in, he was already enjoying himself. He would never admit it out loud, of course, but Damon's reactions made the movie ten times more enjoyable than it probably would have been otherwise. He laughed at several points like it was the first time he'd seen it, but then would mouth along with the lines, betraying how well he actually knew the film and Jeremy couldn't help the warm, fuzzy feeling that spread through him at the idea that jaded, sarcastic Damon loved the lighthearted comedy so much.

"So," Damon asked at the end of the movie. "Are you converted yet?"

"I'm not sure," Jeremy grinned. "We might have to watch a few more to properly convince me."

"I think that can be arranged."

"Hey Damon?" Jeremy was almost afraid to bring the topic up, but since they'd only ever joked about it before, the uncertainty was starting to eat away at him.

Damon glanced over at him and made a 'mmmhmm' noise to show he was listening.

"Are we really doing this boyfriend thing? It's okay if we're not."

Damon's lips twitched in amusement. "Are you trying to get rid of me, Jer?"

"No." Jeremy's sincerity took Damon by surprise, as usual. It was hard to reconcile the Jeremy he was getting to know with the sullen, apathetic teenager he'd always assumed the boy was.

"Then yeah. We are."


	11. Birthday

_**A/N: This is probably the last chapter for a few days. I'm getting on a plane in a couple hours and heading back across the Atlantic to my home away from home and then I have an exam to study for…so not too much time for writing. **_

_**But, as per usual, thank you so much to everyone who's reviewing and adding me to their favorite and alert lists. This is quickly becoming one of the most popular fics I've ever written. =D

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Damon prided himself on being able to figure things out without being told. Sometimes it was about reading people, sometimes it was about asking leading questions, sometimes it was about snooping through private property and sometimes it was just a matter of eavesdropping on your brother and his girlfriend.

"Are you coming over tonight for Jer's birthday dinner?" Elena asked.

Damon froze in the hallway outside Stefan's door.

"Of course," Stefan replied. "Wouldn't miss it. I got him a pair of noise cancelling headphones. D'you think that's okay?"

Damon heard Elena's hair swish against her shoulders as she nodded. "You know how he is about getting the right sound quality."

"Yeah, that's what I figured…plus, they were on sale at Best Buy."

He heard Stefan and Elena start heading for the door, so he darted into his own room, still reeling from the new information: Stefan's electronics addiction had reached new heights—he was now buying them for people not related to him; today was Jeremy's birthday; there was a birthday dinner; Damon had not been invited, but Stefan had. Damon frowned. If it were Vampire Barbie, he would think this was some kind of test or mind game. But Jeremy wasn't like that. For starters, he wasn't batshit crazy like Caroline, and he was a guy. Mind games were sort of a chick thing.

So either Jeremy didn't want Damon at his birthday or Jeremy didn't care as much about his birthday as Elena and Aunt Jenna obviously did, since there was a dinner. Except…Damon was pretty sure birthdays came with the boyfriend territory (although his frame of reference was pretty limited) and Jeremy had seemed pretty thrilled about things between them being official and exclusive and all those things that mattered to teenagers. Damon refused to admit that they mattered to him too, even if it did make him feel all warm and fuzzy and Stefan-esque when he thought of 'Jeremy' and 'boyfriend' in the same sentence.

He really only had two options. He could sit at home and pretend like he didn't know what was going on ten minutes away, or he could show up to another Gilbert family dinner without an invitation. And Damon wasn't much of sit-at-home kind of guy.

* * *

Jeremy answered the door when Damon rang the bell. The teenager stared at him, his mouth hanging open, for nearly thirty seconds.

"What are you doing here?" Jeremy hissed, once he recovered.

"I was under the impression that boyfriends are supposed to show up to birthdays." Damon said, aiming for his usual casual attitude but failing because he was starting to think that maybe he'd gotten this wrong. And Damon Salvatore was _not_ used to being wrong.

Jeremy pushed him backwards and stepped out onto the porch, pulling the door closed behind him. "Yeah. Except that half of the people in there don't know you're my boyfriend and the other half are still working on a plan to break us up. Elena gave me another vervain bracelet this morning."

"Another one?" Damon frowned. "What happened to the first one?" He couldn't help reaching for Jeremy's wrist and pushing his sleeve up to investigate.

"You aren't very observant, are you?" Jeremy grinned a little, forgetting he was supposed to be annoyed at Damon for crashing his birthday. "I haven't been wearing it for weeks. Since the day Elena found out."

"Are you an idiot?" Damon scowled. "You spend the majority of your time with a vampire and you aren't wearing vervain? Even Elena's not that stupid."

"I trust you."

"I know that. But I'm not the only vampire in this town. And the last thing I need is for somebody like Klaus to finally decide to show up and start using you against me." Damon crossed his arms over his chest. "Wear it."

"Is that your roundabout way of saying you don't want anything to happen to me?" Jeremy asked, but he was smiling.

"Yes. Deal with it. And for fuck's sake, start wearing your ring again too. Please."

"Only 'cause you asked so nice," Jeremy grinned, sliding his arms around Damon's waist and pressing a kiss to his jaw.

The door swung open again and before Jeremy could pull away, Alaric was staring at them both, his expression stunned. "Well that's new." He managed.

"Not really," Jeremy shrugged.

"Dinner's ready." Rick said, his eyes darting between the two of them again. "Does Jenna know?"

"No." Jeremy said. "And it's going to stay that way. At least for now."

Damon made a mental note to dissect that particular sentence at a later date.

* * *

Dinner had an air of awkwardness that nobody could manage to break. Stefan and Rick tried valiantly, but Elena spent the whole dinner glaring at Damon, while Damon managed to thoroughly fluster Jeremy by sitting a little closer than normal and occasionally breathing on his neck, and Jenna just looked confused by whatever was going on with her niece and nephew. Aunt Jenna and Oblivious Matt should form the Dumb Blondes Club, Damon decided. Shame Vampire Barbie's fangs meant she knew too much, because otherwise she'd be a perfect candidate.

After Jeremy opened his presents, and they'd eaten cake, Stefan and Elena left to do something nauseatingly teenager-y. (Damon figured they were probably going to sit at the Grill and stare lovingly into each other's eyes for a few decades or so.)

When Rick and Jenna disappeared into the kitchen to clean up, Jeremy snuck Damon upstairs to his room.

"Why did you come tonight?"

"I wanted to." Damon shrugged. "Although a little heads up might have been nice. I didn't have time to get you anything."

"I don't care about that. I didn't want to do anything, actually. But Aunt Jenna wanted a dinner and Elena said I had to."

Damon frowned, trying to understand. "Why so anti-birthday?"

"I'm not. But it's been the shittiest of shitty years, and I didn't feel much like celebrating it."

Damon wondered if he should have caught on sooner. It was easy to forget, with everything else that was always happening in Mystic Falls, that the past year and a half had been especially terrible for Jeremy. Damon wrapped his arms around Jeremy, holding the younger boy against his chest.

"It can only go up from here." Damon said quietly. "Promise."

Jeremy nodded and nuzzled his face against the smooth column of Damon's neck.

"Happy birthday, Jer."


	12. Truth

_**A/N: My flight was cancelled. ***__**grumble grumble**__*** So you all get another chapter. This particular one has been written for a couple days, but I couldn't quite figure out where to put it, until now.

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**_

"What the fuck, Damon?" Jeremy snapped. He was pretty sure the vampire had yanked him sideways with enough force to rip the shoulder seam on his stupid rented tux.

The Lockwood mansion was crowded, so nobody noticed Damon pulling Jeremy into the tiny bathroom.

"What are you even doing here?" Jeremy crossed his arms over his chest.

"Chaperoning. Carol Lockwood called yesterday and asked me to because Rick bailed." Damon said coldly. "I didn't expect to find you here."

"I'm in high school. Going to prom is something everybody does," Jeremy rolled his eyes.

Damon glared at Jeremy, wishing the other boy weren't taller than him. It would make intimidating him a hell of a lot easier.

"And I'm assuming you just forgot to tell me about your date?" Damon's eyes flashed dangerously.

"It's not a date, Damon." Jeremy scowled. "I'm only here with Bonnie because Luca cancelled on her at the last minute. It's her senior prom. She shouldn't have to be here alone."

"If that's all this was, you wouldn't have lied to me."

"I didn't lie. I didn't know I was coming until this morning."

"Were you going to tell me about it?"

Jeremy's guilty silence was confirmation enough.

"Thought so." Damon said.

"Jesus Christ, Damon, I didn't tell you because I knew you would make a bigger deal out of it than it actually is."

Damon shrugged, and Jeremy _hated_ how casual and unaffected he looked right now. "The two of you looked pretty cozy."

"We were dancing, Damon. What do you expect?"

"Maybe for my _boyfriend_ to look a little less pleased with some pretty girl wrapped around him."

"We were having fun. She's just a friend. You _know_ that."

"Well go on and keep having fun then. I'm not stopping you."

"Just stop, Damon, okay?" Jeremy was suddenly fuming. "I get that you're possessive and whatever, but do you think I _want_ to be here with Bonnie? I didn't want to come to this thing at all."

"And yet all it took was a request from _her._"

Jeremy ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Haven't we been through this already? I'm not interested in Bonnie. And I'm not going to keep talking in circles with you in a bathroom." Jeremy pushed past Damon and opened the door, rejoining the rest of the Mystic Falls' senior and junior classes. Damon watched him go, struggling to get control of his emotions. Bonnie latched onto Jeremy's arm the moment she spotted him, and Damon hands clenched into fists. Jeremy was _his_ and Damon had never been very good at sharing.

A hand came down on his shoulder and he whirled around to find Stefan looking down at him with a concerned expression on his face.

"C'mon. Let's get some air."

Before Damon could slip away, Stefan was steering him towards the front door and out onto the veranda.

"You need to calm down." Stefan said, quietly enough that nobody would overhear.

"Screw you, Stefan." Damon scowled.

"Damon." Stefan just stared at his brother and kept his hand on Damon's shoulder.

"I'm fine, little brother. Go find somebody else to worry about."

Stefan rolled his eyes, "Will you just admit it already?"

"All right. Yes, I do think your obsession with Apple products is getting out of hand."

Stefan rolled his eyes. "Damon, it's just me. You don't have to do the whole prickly, sarcastic thing."

Damon leaned against the porch railing. There was no way he was letting Stefan inside his head.

"Fighting with him isn't going to make you feel any better." Stefan pointed out.

"So I should pretend I don't care?" Damon smirked. "That's your style, not mine."

"No. I'm saying you should tell him how much you care."

"Again, your territory."

"You didn't have any problem telling Elena you were in love with her."

Stefan rarely managed to surprise Damon, but this was an exception. "How do you know about that?"

Stefan shrugged. "Overheard."

Damon barely knew how to admit the truth to himself, let alone to Stefan. But what he'd felt for Elena wasn't love. It couldn't possibly be, when he cared so much more about Jeremy. He used to think what he had with Katherine was love, only to find out he'd been tricked. And now he was left confused and uncertain and, unfortunately Stefan was right when he said that fighting with Jeremy wasn't making him feel any better about the situation.

"It's not a bad thing, you know." Stefan pointed out. "He might be the best thing that's ever happened to you."

Damon couldn't help but agree, but he wasn't about to say it out loud.

"And you're just being an idiot if you think he doesn't feel the same way, Damon."

With that, Stefan turned and headed back inside, leaving Damon alone with his thoughts. Damon wasn't sure if this was one of those moments where he was grateful to his brother or just annoyed with him. He also was uncertain about Stefan's motives. Was he pro-Jeremy because it meant Damon was no longer chasing after Elena or because he actually thought Jeremy was right for Damon?

Not that Stefan's opinion had ever really mattered.

"Damon?"

Damon whirled around to see Jeremy standing there, his hands shoved in the pockets of his tuxedo pants. Damon preferred him in jeans and a t-shirt (or nothing at all) but he did still look pretty good in his tux.

"Stefan said you wanted to talk to me."

That conniving bastard—Damon made a mental note to punch his brother the next time he saw him.

Damon sighed, "Do you want to get out of here?"

Jeremy looked reluctant. "I don't know, Day, you aren't my favorite person at the moment."

"Please, Jer?" Damon held out his hand.

After a moment's hesitation, Jeremy took it, lacing their fingers together. Damon tugged him down the steps and in the direction of his Camaro. Once they were inside the car, Damon began to drive aimlessly.

"Are you okay?" Jeremy asked, his expression concerned. "Because you're starting to freak me out a little."

"I don't know." Damon admitted honestly. "I'm…confused."

"Can I help?"

Damon shot Jeremy a half-smile, but didn't say anything.

"Is this still about Bonnie?"

"It was never about Bonnie."

"Then what's going on? Tell me the truth."

"Can we take a raincheck on that? I promise I'll tell you. But I just can't yet."

Jeremy looked ready to argue, but something changed his mind, because he leaned across the gearshift and pressed a kiss to Damon's jaw. "Okay. Can I tell you something, then?"

Damon nodded.

"I much would have rather had you as my date tonight."

"I would have preferred that too," Damon admitted quietly.


	13. Irony

_**A/N: Blame this chapter on my return to rainy, wintry, cold Scotland. **_**; )**

_**And I swear I'm telling the truth this time when I say this is the last post for a couple days. I need to buckle down and get ready for my exam.**_

_**That being said, thank you all for your reviews and alerts and favorites. I can't wait to hear what you all think about this one.

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**_

Summer, Jeremy learned, was Damon's favorite season. It seemed contradictory; a year ago Jeremy probably would have guessed that Damon was more a fan of winter. So on the first day of summer vacation, Jeremy was surprised when Damon showed up on the Gilberts porch, his Camaro idling in the driveway with the top down. His sunglasses were pushed up onto the top of his head, his hair unruly around them, and he was wearing a white t-shirt instead of black and what looked like swim trunks. And flip-flops. Jeremy was pretty sure the sound that came out of his mouth upon seeing Damon was some combination of a giggle and a hiccup. Because it was Damon, he looked sort of silly not wearing his usual jeans-and-leather-jacket-combo (thus the giggle), but because it was _Damon_, he also looked like he belonged in a Ralph Lauren swimwear ad (thus the hiccup).

It was still early—Jeremy was pretty sure Elena was over at the boardinghouse with Stefan, sleeping in like every other normal person on the planet does the first day of summer break.

"C'mon," Damon said, grinning in that way that made the corners of his eyes crinkle and Jeremy's heart thump a little harder.

"Huh?" Jeremy asked, his brain still hung up on the Ralph Lauren swimwear side of things.

"Grab your swimsuit and a towel." Damon instructed. "And sunscreen. I'll bet you burn easy."

"Babe, it's seven-thirty in the morning." Jeremy groaned, but he knew there was no arguing with Damon when he was like this. Jeremy trudged back upstairs and dug his swimsuit out of a drawer, shucking off his pajamas and pulling it on. He yanked a t-shirt over his head and tucked his sunglasses into the neck. Deciding to follow Damon's lead, he slid his feet into flip-flops.

It took him all of five minutes, but when he returned downstairs Damon was already in the car, revving the engine impatiently.

"Where are we going?" Jeremy asked, as Damon drove out of town, headed east.

"The beach." Damon shot him a grin and fiddled with the radio, tuning it to a classic rock station.

"The beach?" Jeremy frowned. There wasn't a lake around for miles. Unless Damon meant… "Virginia Beach?"

Damon whistled along with the radio, his expression innocent.

"I'm not sure if you're totally crazy or surprisingly sweet." Jeremy said, and Damon just shot him a smirk, before turning the radio up.

* * *

They'd arrived early enough that the beach still wasn't hugely crowded, although Damon was under no illusions that it would remain that way. The later into the day it got, the more the beach would fill up.

"You do realize if you wanted to go swimming," Jeremy grinned as they waded knee-deep in the surf, "that we have a perfectly good pool in the backyard."

Damon pulled a face. "It's not the same."

Jeremy couldn't help sneaking sideways glances at Damon, wondering why he'd ever thought winter was a more appropriate season for him. Obviously Damon belonged here, wading through the ocean in eighty-five degree weather, wearing nothing but his swim trunks and his Ray-Bans. It was ironic, actually, how much Damon belonged in the sun. It gleamed off his black hair and took some of the pallor out of his skin. Plus, Damon without his shirt was always a breathtaking sight. Jeremy wasn't the only one glancing at his boyfriend. His toned chest and his narrow hips and his broad shoulders were catching the attention of pretty much every girl on the beach.

"You're gathering a whole flock of admirers." Jeremy grinned.

Damon laughed with him, but he knew he wasn't the only one getting attention. He wasn't in the habit of saying things like that out loud—all of his former conquests _knew_ how attractive they were. With Jeremy, he wasn't sure. The teenager didn't have the usual trappings of insecurity; he was obviously comfortable with his body and he'd never once faced Damon with a Twilight chick _why me? _moment, but there were times like this when he wondered whether Jeremy realized he was gathering his own flock of admirers. Maybe it was selfish, but Damon rather hoped Jeremy didn't realize how special he was. Jeremy was confident but he wasn't arrogant, and arrogance was the last thing Damon wanted for Jeremy.

Damon caught Jeremy's hand, and Jeremy shot him a small smile. Damon figured it was a _thank you_ and a _I needed this break from our wacko town _sort of smile.

* * *

After splashing around in the surf for a while, and then sprawling out on the sand to dry off, Damon and Jeremy walked along the boardwalk, holding hands. They bought hot dogs from a stand and ate them while they walked, and it eventually dawned on Jeremy that this was a date. It wasn't something they could do in Mystic Falls, considering the legalities of their situation. Jeremy didn't turn eighteen for another eleven months (but who was counting?), and even though Damon was friendly with Sheriff Forbes, she definitely took her job seriously, and Damon doubted he could successfully avoid a statutory rape charge by flashing a charming grin. Maybe he could have compelled his way out of it, but the town was still spiking everything with vervain.

They passed a group of frat boys—pre-werewolf Tyler Lockwood types—and Damon sensed trouble before Jeremy did.

"Faggots," one of them jeered.

Jeremy flinched, and if it weren't broad daylight in the middle of the Virginia Beach boardwalk, Damon would have been happy to let those frat boys know exactly what they were messing with. Even so, he'd settle for punching the jeerer in the face.

As he stepped towards the frat boy, Jeremy herded him sideways, around the group, who shouted a few other slurs at their backs.

"It's not worth it, Day." Jeremy said quietly. "Can you imagine Stefan's face if he had do drive down here to bail you out of jail?"

The joke soothed Damon's anger, because he figured it meant Jeremy was okay. He didn't give a fuck what a bunch of chromosomally-challenged frat boys thought, but he was slightly concerned about Jeremy. It wasn't like they'd ever discussed the implications of their relationship before, mostly because talking was something they'd only recently starting doing and it wasn't like Jeremy was the first man Damon had been involved with. The same could not be said for Jeremy (obviously) and Damon had assumed Jeremy was okay, since he didn't seem to be having any kind of identity crisis.

The problem was that he didn't know how to ask, so he pulled Jeremy in for a kiss (a nice _fuck you_ to the frat boys who were still staring at them) and figured it was a good sign that Jeremy didn't pull away.

* * *

They returned to the Camaro as the sun was setting. Jeremy fished his phone out of the glove compartment to discover he had fourteen missed calls and twenty-five texts—all from either Elena or Jenna and each increasing in their level of hysteria—but he figured he was going to be in trouble anyway, and he may as well enjoy the two-hour drive home, so he pocketed his phone without replying. Damon had several texts from Stefan, and the last one was the most worrying.

"Stefan was covering for us." Damon said as he started the engine. "Aunt Jenna wasn't buying whatever story he gave her, so he eventually told her the truth."

Jeremy dropped his head back onto the seat. He was sunburnt and tired, exactly the way you were supposed to feel after a day at the beach, and he really couldn't bring himself to care about the arguments that were undoubtedly waiting for them at home.

"Cat's out of the bag, I guess." Jeremy said with a shrug. "Was going to happen sooner or later."

Damon fiddled with the radio before turning it off entirely and looking over at Jeremy. "You aren't worried?"

"Aunt Jenna's gonna be pissed about the sneaking around, but I've done worse." Jeremy tilted his head to the side and shot a grin at Damon. "Let's not talk about it. I had fun today."

Damon knew he should make sure Jeremy really was okay, and not just relying on his usual glib attitude, but Damon already knew the discussion would veer dangerously close to another one Damon still wasn't ready to have, so he leaned across the gearshift, gently curling his hand around the back of Jeremy's neck and pulled him over for a long, lingering kiss.

_I love you_.

They were just three words, and they only had one syllable each. It should have been easy, because Damon was more sure than ever that he would actually be telling the truth this time. He supposed that was the irony—he couldn't say it when it really mattered.

He pulled away from Jeremy reluctantly, and put the Camaro in gear. Their drive back to Mystic Falls was quiet, but neither of them minded.


	14. Visit

_**A/N: Okay, so now I've lied twice in a row, but I just had to get this chapter out of my system because a) I'm a total procrastinator and b) I was worried I was going to forget the ideas that kept popping into my head.**_

_**So yes. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are ALL ABOUT my exam. But I can pretty much guarantee a new chapter on Friday. **_**=D

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**

Jeremy had never felt the need to visit the cemetery the way Elena used to do (or maybe still did; he wasn't sure). But after a long and exhausting conversation with Aunt Jenna and another bickering session with Elena, Jeremy wanted to get out of the house. It wasn't that he didn't miss his parents, because of course he did, it was just that he'd never associated the cemetery with _them_. There were enough reminders of his parents around the house that he didn't feel the need to go sit in front of their headstones to remember them.

Until now.

He'd stayed awake all night, unable to sleep once the idea struck him, but certain that he didn't want to be in the cemetery at night. Once the sun was rising, he rolled out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, sliding his feet into a battered pair of Converse. He left a note for Aunt Jenna on the kitchen counter, because she would freak out if she woke up to find the house empty with no note for the second day in a row.

It was a quick walk, and he took a short cut through the woods. It took him a few minutes to find his parents among the rows and rows, but when he did, he sat down between them. The grass was damp, but he didn't care.

He hadn't intended to speak. He'd thought he was just going to sit for a while. But words came to him before he even realized he'd been searching for something to say.

"Hi, Mom and Dad." His voice sounded a little warbled, but that was okay. There was nobody else here anyway. "I know that I don't come here ever. But I just sort of had one of those days where I wished you were around. I mean, Aunt Jenna's great, but she's not you. I mean, there's no way either of you would have let me get away with sneaking out of the house with my boyfriend to drive to Virginia Beach and back on the same day, with no punishment at all. You guys would have grounded me so fast, my head would have spun. I'm not saying I want to be grounded, obviously, but it was just a reminder that things are never gonna be the same.

"Anyway…I'm not here to complain about my lack of punishment. That's just stupid. I dunno if Elena talks when she's here, or if she just writes in her journal, but if she does talk, she's probably told you about Stefan. The dude is basically her entire life, so it would be sort of a lie if she didn't tell you about him. Which is why I should tell you about Damon. He's Stefan's older brother. He's twenty-one going on a hundred and seventy-ish, if you catch my drift. He and I have been sneaking around for a while now. Since October, I think. He's only been my boyfriend officially for a couple months though. Elena and Stefan have known for a few months, and Elena is totally against it because she's a hypocrite, but Stefan seems kinda cool about it. Aunt Jenna found out last night." Jeremy sighed heavily. "She's concerned since Damon is older. Course, she only thinks it's four years. I can't imagine what she'd do if she knew the truth. Probably best that she doesn't. Although I can't figure out how long she's going to be in the dark, considering Elena and I are dating vampires and Rick is a vampire hunter…anyway, I'm getting off track.

"I don't know if this means I'm gay or what. Jenna asked—I think she was worried, especially with all those kids who were committing suicide. I didn't know how to explain it to her, and but I figure I can try and explain it to you. I owe you at least that much." Jeremy stared down at his hands for a moment. "I'm in love with him. I haven't told him and that's why I couldn't tell Aunt Jenna, because I knew Elena was sitting on the stairs eavesdropping. It's not fair for either of them to know before Damon does. I don't know where it came from. It all started just because we were both lonely; it was never supposed to mean anything. But now it means everything and that's scary, but at the same time it's kind of amazing. His taste in music is questionable and he can be sort of prickly until you get to know him, but he's just…Damon. I've never met anybody else like him. And he's the only person in my life who doesn't treat me like a child or a freak. I mean, I go to school with vampires and werewolves and witches, but _I'm _the one nobody wants to talk to.

"Aunt Jenna hasn't said I have to break up with him, or anything. I don't think she will. I think she's afraid of what might happen if she does. I didn't exactly make things easy on her at the beginning, with the drugs and the almost flunking out of school thing. And I feel bad about that, but if it means that she's not going to flip out about Damon, even if she wants to..." Jeremy shrugged. "Other than Elena—and things aren't so good with her at the moment—he's all I've got."

Jeremy hugged his knees to his chest, surprised at the amount he'd just said. He wondered if it was a sign that he ought to visit his parents more. He sighed. "I don't know what I believe. I don't know if you're in heaven or don't even exist at all anymore and are just decomposing six feet under…but I miss you."

After a few more minutes in silence, Jeremy got to his feet and brushed himself off. As he was walking out of the cemetery, he spotted a familiar figure striding towards him.

"I was just at your house." Damon said. "Jenna said you were here. She didn't look ready to kill me, so I guess last night wasn't too bad."

"Nah. She's cool."

Damon nodded, and shoved his hands into his pockets, frowning a little and squinting his eyes slightly as he looked at Jeremy. Jeremy was pretty sure these things were cues that Damon was concerned without knowing exactly how to voice it. "Are you…okay? Yesterday was kind of…those assholes at the beach and then Jenna and now you're here and I didn't think you ever came here, so I guess I was…worried."

Jeremy smiled; he'd never seen Damon so inarticulate and it was endearing. "I'm okay."

Damon nodded again, and his frown disappeared. "Can I buy you breakfast?"

Jeremy's smile grew wider. "Sounds good."

Damon took his hand and they walked down the path towards the road. Jeremy shot a glance at the cemetery over his shoulder, resolving to visit more often.


	15. Now

_**A/N: I was going to wait until after my exam to post this but I have no willpower. If I fail, Jeremy and Damon are going to be in so. much. trouble. **_**;)**

_**Also, major fluff alert on this one. Like, fluffier than candyfloss and clouds and kittens…

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**_

The opening credits were rolling on _The Philadelphia Story_—and okay, Jeremy had to admit that Damon had finally convinced him of the validity of the screwball comedy as a genre—and they were snuggled up together in Damon's bed, the DVD playing on the MacBook Damon "borrowed" from Stefan. Damon's hand was threading through Jeremy's hair, which was still slightly damp from the shower they'd taken a few hours earlier.

"I saw this movie when it was released in the cinemas." Damon said, his voice drowsy.

"Yeah?"

"Mmm-hmm. In 1941."

"Did you take a date to the movies with you?" Jeremy smirked, inching closer and pillowing his head on Damon's chest.

Damon nodded. "Of course. Her name was Mary-Ann Jones, and she was delicious."

"You made that up."

"Well, her name very easily _could _have been Mary-Ann. And I'm sure she did taste delicious or I wouldn't have bothered."

Jeremy laughed, a rumble in his chest that Damon could feel. Katharine Hepburn was throwing Cary Grant's luggage out the front door, and Damon let his fingers dance up and down Jeremy's spine lightly.

"Do you like it? Being a vampire, I mean."

Damon pulled back to look at Jeremy's face, certain it was a question he'd never been asked.

"It has its perks." Damon said dryly. "But it's not a choice I would make a second time. Not that it's a choice I made the first time around."

Jeremy frowned.

"Stefan." Damon said, his voice flat. "He fed first…and when he returned I had decided to let myself die. But he came back with a human offering and he made it impossible to resist." Damon grimaced, "Haven't managed to forgive him for it yet."

Jeremy's arms tightened around Damon's waist, and he nuzzled his face against Damon's neck. "Sorry," he said quietly, and somehow it managed to be more sincere than any of the apologies Stefan had offered him over the last hundred and forty years. Of course, Damon knew that was because Stefan wasn't really sorry. He knew that his brother felt some guilt, but he didn't see how wrong he'd been—how like Katherine he'd been—taking away Damon's last real choice.

"Not your fault. And it's gotten better. Only took me about a decade before I stopped trying to starve myself to death." Damon's tone was flippant, but Jeremy felt like someone had dumped ice all over his insides.

"Is that possible?"

"Not really. It hurts like a bitch, too, so either I would give up or Stefan would start forcing blood down my throat."

"So is that why you don't get along? Because he made you change? It has nothing to do with Katherine?"

Damon shrugged, "Katherine was a catalyst. She exposed all the cracks in our relationship and once she was gone, everything fell apart."

"Do you still love her?" Jeremy's expression was almost defiant, like he was bracing himself for Damon to say yes.

"No. I never did. She was compelling me the entire time. I was just the idiot who believed it was real."

Damon held his breath, waiting for Jeremy to ask his next question, certain it would be about Elena as they skated closer and closer over thin ice to the truth. But Jeremy didn't ask him anything else. He propped himself up on his elbow, his lips brushing across Damon's in a teasingly light kiss, before he lowered himself again and tipped his face to watch the movie.

Damon let out his breath in a sigh, his arm tightening around Jeremy's waist.

* * *

Jeremy was drowsing, the movie fading in and out of his consciousness, when he felt Damon's lips against his forehead. Jeremy could tell that the vampire was not relaxed, every inch of their bodies were touching and Damon's was tense.

"Something wrong?" Jeremy asked sleepily.

Damon jerked, like he hadn't realized Jeremy was still awake. "No."

"You're all tense, babe. We're watching your favorite movie and I did that _thing_ you like so much—nearly drowned in the shower while doing it too—so you should be totally blissed-out right now."

Damon chuckled, and he did relax a little. "Better?"

Jeremy nodded. And then, before he could stop them, the words slipped out of his mouth. He'd been itching to say them since he'd visited his parents in the cemetery—probably longer than that, if he were being really honest with himself—but he'd managed to keep it from happening. Until now. "Love you."

Damon's reaction was not was Jeremy expected. Although Jeremy wasn't sure exactly _what_ he'd expected, considering he hadn't thought about this moment at all, really. He'd thought about _wanting_ to tell Damon he loved him, but he'd never considered what might happen after the words were said.

And now they were. They hung in the air between them, and suddenly Katharine Hepburn's voice seemed too loud, braying over the party scene like a high society donkey. Damon reached over and tapped the space bar on the computer, and the room filled with silence.

"You don't have to say anything." Jeremy whispered, mortification beginning to creep in.

"Don't be an idiot," Damon said affectionately. "I love you too."

Then, without further preamble, he un-paused the movie, slipped his arms back around Jeremy, and cocooned them tighter in the soft sheets, while Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn bickered.


	16. Independence

_**A/N: Exam is done! And it wasn't the disaster I was anticipating! Yippee!**_

_**More fluff here, because I'm in too good of a mood to write angst.**_

_**Thank you to all you lovely readers. You guys are awesome.

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**_

Damon ran a hand over the stubble growing on his face, debating whether he ought to shave. Deciding he couldn't be bothered, he stepped away from the sink and wandered back into his bedroom, a towel wrapped around his hips. He dragged a second towel back and forth over his head, drying his hair, while he gathered clothes. It was easy, since he rarely deviated from black v-necks and jeans. It wasn't particularly patriotic, but considering it was the one hundred and seventieth 4th of July he'd celebrated, he really wasn't too concerned about getting decked out in red, white and blue.

He slid his feet into flip-flops, because it was way too hot for boots. The temperature didn't affect him, of course, but he had to at least maintain the charade in ninety-two degree weather.

Once dressed, he walked out into the hallway, his flip-flops making far too much noise for his liking.

"Stefan?" His brother appeared, wearing American flag swim trunks and a white t-shirt. "Please tell me Elena put you up to that." Damon snorted.

Stefan crossed his arms over his chest. "Let's go."

Damon shrugged and walked down the stairs next to Stefan, unable to keep from grinning at the stupid swim trunks.

"Race you there." Damon shot a grin over his shoulder.

He beat Stefan by nearly ten seconds. Damon wasn't surprised. Stefan was still living off bunnies and squirrels, while Damon maintained a healthy diet of B positive from a very willing donor.

The Salvatore brothers wandered around the side of the house to the backyard, where Rick was grilling hot dogs and hamburgers. There were a group of guys (Oblivious Matt, Werewolf Tyler, a few others whom Damon neither knew nor cared to know) tossing around a football and the usual crowd of girls was sprawled out by the pool. Stefan climbed the stairs onto the pool deck and greeted Elena with a kiss, but she shooed him away to play football with the guys.

Damon walked over to Rick. "Happy fourth," he said, unenthusiastically.

"I guess they get a little dull when you've celebrated them for almost two centuries." Rick grinned.

"You could say that." Damon shrugged. "Where's Jeremy?"

"Hiding, I expect. He and Jenna had it out this morning."

Damon arched an eyebrow. The best way to get Rick talking was to give him empty air to fill with chatter, especially around Damon. The vampire apparently made the vampire hunter uncomfortable.

"He asked if he could skip the party, since he didn't invite anyone and Jenna wasn't having it. I'm sure you know how touchy Jeremy can be about not having friends."

This was news to Damon, but he wasn't about to give Rick the satisfaction of knowing something about Jeremy that he didn't, so he nodded. "I'll see if I can coax him out of hiding then."

"Good luck," Rick said skeptically.

A predatory smile spread across Damon's face. "I think you'll find I can be very persuasive."

Jenna was in the kitchen, making pasta salad and she eyed Damon as he came through the back door.

"I suppose Jeremy invited you."

"Well, it definitely wasn't Elena." Damon said. There was a time when he'd been able to charm Jenna with a wink and a smile, but apparently that time expired when he started corrupting her sixteen-year-old nephew. He figured it probably didn't make too much difference to her that Jeremy was now seventeen.

Jenna regarded him coolly, her expression surprisingly neutral. "You're probably the only one who can cheer him up at the moment," she admitted reluctantly. "He's in his room."

Damon nodded. He wondered if this was what a truce felt like. He cut through the living room and climbed the stairs, turning right to enter Jeremy's bedroom. His boyfriend was stretched out on the bed, his noise-cancelling headphones on and his sketchpad open in front of him. Damon didn't want to startle him, but he figured there was no way to avoid it. Not only was Jeremy blocking out sound, he was also sketching, which meant he was in a whole other universe.

He approached the bed and put his hand gently on Jeremy's shoulder. The boy started, and dropped the sketchbook. He reached up and pulled his headphones off.

"Hey." He said, definitely sounding less than chipper.

"Everybody seems to think you need some cheering up."

"And they sent you?"

"Apparently I'm the only man for the job."

"I guess that's true." Jeremy shrugged.

"You guess?" Damon smirked. "What do I have to do to make you sure?"

Jeremy grinned wickedly and pulled Damon down onto the bed with him.

"Well, this is going to be easy," Damon grinned, his lips seeking out Jeremy's.

* * *

"Rick said you and Jenna fought."

It was too hot to snuggle together, so Jeremy was lying in bed and Damon was sprawled on the window seat. They could hear the girls shrieking in the backyard, and sounds of water splashing out of the pool, so Damon assumed the boys had abandoned their football game to terrorize the girls.

Jeremy turned onto his side to see Damon better. "Yeah." Jeremy sighed. "She thinks I should be spending less time with you and more time with people my own age."

Damon bristled. Jeremy was too good to spend time with most of the halfwits he went to school with.

"I told her where she could shove that idea. I hate them. I love you. It's pretty simple."

"What did she have to say to that?"

"That I was being stupid and naïve and that when you left, I'd be alone. As if that's new or something. I've always been alone."

Damon opened his mouth to say something, but he heard Jenna climbing the stairs. She stopped halfway up and called out, "If either of you two lovebirds wants food, you'd better come down now before Matt and Tyler demolish it all."

Jeremy sighed. "She means come down or else."

"All right. Let me borrow a pair of shorts. I don't feel like putting jeans on again."

Jeremy laughed and pulled on his own shorts, before walking over to his dresser and digging through it.

"These are from two summers ago," he said, tossing Damon a pair of gray cargo shorts. "So they might fit you, skinny."

Damon rolled his eyes, but he tugged on the shorts. Apparently even the Jeremy of two summers ago was broader than Damon, because they were a little loose around his hips.

"Nice legs," Jeremy grinned, scrambling into his t-shirt. Damon shoved him playfully as he passed, and Jeremy caught him around the waist, pulling him in for a searing kiss. Their tongues tangled and Jeremy's hands fisted the back of Damon's t-shirt, while one of Damon's hands cradled the back of Jeremy's head and threaded through his hair.

Damon pulled away reluctantly. "Don't start something we can't finish."

Jeremy smirked, "Later, then."

Several people shot Jeremy and Damon curious looks as they stepped out onto the back porch together, but Damon was intimidating enough that no one said anything, even when Jeremy reached over and slipped his hand into Damon's, lacing their fingers together. There was no misreading that particular message.

Damon could feel the annoyed glares Elena was sending them, but he didn't care. He and Jeremy stayed on the fringes of the group, sitting on the porch stairs to eat their food rather than joining everyone else on the deck. When the guys started tossing around the football again, nobody invited Damon or Jeremy to join, and neither of them particularly cared.

"So are you guys, like, together now?" Caroline was standing in front of them in her bikini top and denim cut-offs, hands on her hips.

"What's it to you, Barbie?" Damon quirked an eyebrow at her, but he draped his arm across Jeremy's shoulders, just in case the blonde got any ideas about who Jeremy belonged to.

"It's all kinds of hot." Caroline winked, before brushing past them to join the rest of the girls on the pool deck.

"She's got that right," Damon hissed in Jeremy's ear, sending shivers down the boy's spine.

* * *

After the sun set, everybody piled into cars and drove into town to see the fireworks, but Jeremy and Damon hung back until they were the last ones in the backyard.

"D'you want to go see the fireworks?" Damon asked.

"We don't have a car anymore."

Damon smiled. "Give me five minutes."

He was gone before Jeremy could protest, leaving nothing but a whoosh of air behind him. Exactly five minutes later, Jeremy heard the Camaro's rumbling engine as it turned the corner. Jeremy met Damon in the driveway and jumped into the car without opening the door.

"Always wanted to do that," Jeremy grinned.

Damon drove towards town, but rather than parking on the street in front of the courthouse so they could join everybody on the grassy town square, he pulled around the corner and parked on a side street, still facing the right direction to see the fireworks.

Damon climbed into the backseat, shifting around to get comfortable. "Room for both of us back here."

Jeremy joined him, snuggling against Damon's side and leaning his head against the leather seat.

"For the record, I'm not going anywhere."

Jeremy glanced over his expression confused. "What do you mean?"

"You said Jenna was talking about when I leave you. Well, I'm not going anywhere."

"I know that." Jeremy said quietly, dropping his head onto Damon's shoulder. "Besides, you'd be crazy to leave now. We are all kinds of hot, after all."

Damon chuckled and they settled in to watch the fireworks together.


	17. Change

_**A/N: Just a short little visit to Stefan's POV this time. Despite what this site says, this part is exactly 500 words. (And it wasn't even intentional! It just happened. =D)**_

_**Thanks to all my lovely reviewers and everybody else who's reading this Damon/Jeremy experiment of mine.

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**_

Stefan could remember when Damon was the boy mothers warned their daughters about. He was 'that Salvatore boy' out to corrupt and defile the innocent. He could charm any girl he wanted with a smile or a wink or a witty comment, with the exception of Katherine Pierce. Stefan knew that was why Damon had wanted her so badly—because she didn't give in to him as easily as all the others. And then, once they'd become vampires and were no longer fit for polite society, Damon had only two uses for women: feeding and fucking.

Which made it so…strange watching Jeremy and Damon together like he was now, after family dinner with the Gilberts. Jeremy and Damon were sitting next to the pool, dangling their legs in the water. Their heads were bent together and whatever Jeremy was telling Damon (Stefan could hear easily if he wanted to, but he was electing to give them some privacy instead) was making his brother throw his head back and laugh. And it wasn't Damon's slightly maniacal villain laugh; it was a _real_ laugh. The way Damon used to laugh when they were humans.

Stefan wasn't sure what it was about Jeremy that had changed Damon into a relationship guy. Not only that, but Jeremy, who hadn't even known Damon when he was human, was slowly but surely bringing Damon's humanity back to the surface. The oddest part was that Stefan was fairly certain Jeremy wasn't even _trying_, it was just happening. They went to the beach and they watched movies and they played pool at the Grill and by some strange twist of fate, Damon was the happiest Stefan had ever seen him in the company of a seventeen-year-old former drug addict. He hadn't gotten bored; he hadn't gone out of his way to manipulate or hurt Jeremy; he hadn't gone out of his way to hurt or manipulate _anyone_ since he and Jeremy started seeing each other.

It made Stefan breathe a sigh of relief. Elena was headed to Duke in August, and Stefan intended to follow her. He'd been convinced that Damon would cause chaos and terror the moment Mystic Falls was unprotected, but he was beginning to think that everything would be okay.

He heard a splash and glanced back out the kitchen window. Damon was in the pool and Jeremy was laughing at him, so it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. Without warning, Damon reached out and grabbed Jeremy's ankle, yanking him into the water too.

"They're sort of cute together, aren't they?" Elena asked quietly, her expression resigned.

Stefan and Elena stood at the window and watched while Jeremy and Damon wrestled and splashed and dunked each other a few times, before Jeremy pulled Damon towards him and they began kissing.

Stefan wrapped his arm around Elena's shoulders. "Yeah. They are."

"Don't tell Damon that." Elena rolled her eyes. "He'll do something evil just to prove he isn't cute."

"I don't know." Stefan shrugged, "He seems pretty happy. They both do."


	18. Deal

_**A/N: This chapter is pretty much more shameless fluff, but there are a couple semi-important things happening, I guess? Although I've sort of gotten the impression nobody minds the fluff overly much.**_** ;)

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Jeremy was pretty sure this had to be Stefan's idea. Maybe he'd gotten the idea from Damon originally, but Jeremy seriously doubted that Damon would want to go on an extended double date with his brother and Jeremy's sister. Because that was basically what this weekend was: an exercise in awkward.

But Damon obviously wasn't _too_ against it, because he'd been instrumental in convincing Aunt Jenna that it was a good idea. Jeremy didn't want to know if that included some less-than-kosher methods (because he knew Aunt Jenna could be pretty inconsistent about wearing the vervain bracelet Elena had given her and there was _no way_ Stefan would be the one to compel her) but he figured anything that got him out of Mystic Falls for a few days and meant he got to spend those days with a half-naked Damon sprawled out on the beach, well, he wasn't exactly going to complain.

Jenna had sort of feebly insisted on Jeremy and Elena sharing one hotel room, while Stefan and Damon took the other, but everybody knew how it was actually going to work. And Jeremy suspected Jenna would feel like a bit of a hypocrite if she protested too hard, considering she wasn't _that_ much older than Jeremy or Elena and she and Rick were having sleepovers all the time.

They were driving Damon's car (mostly by default, since Stefan's Porsche was only a two-seater), which meant that Jeremy got shotgun and Elena and Stefan had to sit in the backseat, getting sunburnt and windblown because Damon had insisted it was too nice of a day not to have the top down.

And since it was Damon's car, they were listening to Damon's music, which meant singing along loudly to a lot of surprisingly cheesy 80s rock. Jeremy wouldn't actually believe Damon was a fan of bands like Foreigner and Journey if he hadn't already witnessed it for himself on multiple occasions. A couple times, Jeremy caught glimpses of Elena in the side-mirror, gaping at Damon like he'd grown another head while he belted out 'Hot Blooded' and 'Anyway You Want It'. (Jeremy could totally understand Damon's interest in 'Hot Blooded', but 'Anyway You Want It' seemed just a little too generous to be one of Damon's favorite songs. Although Jeremy knew Journey and Foreigner weren't actually Damon's favorites, they were just better for the road than Bob Dylan or The Doors.)

They checked into their hotel a little ahead of schedule, and Damon managed to get them rooms on completely opposite sides of the hotel. Jeremy grinned at him when Stefan and Elena headed for room 255 and Damon handed him the keycard for room 501.

"I think we're going to hang by the pool for the afternoon," Elena said as they rode up the elevator.

"We're going to the beach." Damon said definitively.

Stefan, always the mediator, suggested, "Why don't we all meet up in the lobby at six-thirty for dinner then?"

"Sounds good," Jeremy said, as the doors opened for the second floor and Elena and Stefan stepped out.

Jeremy and Damon didn't waste any time once they were in their room. They dropped their bags and shucked off their clothes, pulling on swim trunks and sliding on sunglasses and flip-flops.

"Aren't you glad Stefan thought of this?" Jeremy said, mostly to wind Damon up a little bit.

"He stole the idea from me. He just didn't have the balls to sneak Elena out for the day. He had to go through all the proper channels and book a hotel so nobody was driving past their bedtime." Damon rolled his eyes. "He goes through all that trouble, and they're going to hang out at the hotel pool. Lame."

"That's all Elena," Jeremy said as he slathered sunscreen over his face. "She hates sand."

"Guess I chose the right Gilbert then." Damon grinned and smacked a loud kiss on Jeremy's cheek, not caring that he smelled strongly of sunscreen.

"You'd better believe it."

* * *

Damon was stretched out on the warm sand, his eyes closed and his arms tucked behind his head. Jeremy was sitting next to him, staring out at the ocean.

"You've been all over the world, haven't you?" Jeremy asked.

"Mmm-hmm." Damon murmured his assent.

"Where's your favorite place?"

"Venice. Or London, depending on the time of year. London is miserable in the winter, but summer isn't so bad."

Jeremy flopped down into the sand next to him. "So you aren't planning on staying in Mystic Falls for the rest of eternity then?"

"Christ, no. One more year and then we're out of there."

"We?"

Somehow, Damon managed to shoot Jeremy a _don't be an idiot_ look with only one eye open. "Yes, we. Don't tell me you want to be one of those Matt-types who will spend the rest of his life in his hometown working as a mechanic and remembering his glory days on the football team. I know Springsteen makes it sound like it's not the worst thing in the world, but you'll be bored out of your skull after six months."

"When have I ever given you any indication that I want to stay in Mystic Falls? I mean, I know I'm not exactly college bound, but I'm getting _out_."

"Good. I love you, but there's no way I'm staying in that town one damn minute longer than I need to."

"You don't have to wait." Jeremy hated how small and insecure his voice sounded. "You could leave."

"Shut up, Jer."

"I just know how much it blows to feel…trapped somewhere."

"Babe, I'm immortal. One year isn't going to feel like anything."

"Okay." Jeremy agreed. He wasn't going to try _that_ hard to make Damon leave, not when he really wanted him around. "So where are we going to go next year then?"

"Fucking anywhere. Where do you want to go?"

"Fucking anywhere." Jeremy laughed.

"All right. We'll get in my car and drive somewhere then. And when we get bored, we'll go somewhere else."

"Suits me just fine." Jeremy reached over and threaded his fingers through Damon's. "But we're going to have to bring better music on this extended road trip. Because I'm going to end up jumping out of the car on some freeway somewhere if I have to listen to Journey twenty-four/seven."

"Tell you what, from this point forward, you pick our music if I can pick our movies."

"Deal."

* * *

Damon hadn't wanted to meet up with Elena and Stefan (surprise, surprise) but after some bargaining on Jeremy's part, they were both downstairs in the lobby only ten minutes later than agreed upon. Neither Stefan nor Elena commented on their tardiness. Elena looked tan from her afternoon stretched out on a chaise by the pool, and Stefan didn't look as bored as Jeremy had expected him to. He guessed Stefan was maybe used to the way Elena operated by now.

They let Elena pick the restaurant, because Stefan and Damon weren't planning on eating and Jeremy wasn't picky. She went for a pretty straightforward burgers-and-bar-food kind of place, which Damon admitted confusion about, since Elena had the look of a girl who barely ate anything at all, let alone red meat and carbs. It was one of the things he'd always disliked most about her. At least Katherine, like most women from his human days, had had slightly more generous curves than Elena's bony hips and a waist he could wrap one hand around. She was still feminine, he supposed, but he didn't understand what was so appealing about looking underfed.

Pushing those thoughts from his mind, Damon couldn't help inching closer to Jeremy in the booth, pressing himself against the side of Jeremy's broad, solid chest. Jeremy arched an eyebrow, but he draped his arm comfortably across Damon's shoulders.

"Hey babe," Jeremy said in Damon's ear, his nose nudging Damon's cheek, "Feel like hooking us up with something alcoholic?"

Damon smirked, "What's in it for me?"

Jeremy nipped playfully at Damon's ear. "You already know the answer to that."

Damon grinned and slid out of the booth, headed in the direction of the bar. Elena turned puppy-dog eyes on Stefan, and with a resigned sigh covering an amused smile, he followed Damon.

"You two seem…settled." Elena said, taking a delicate sip of her ice water.

"If that's your way of saying you've given up trying to break us up, then yeah. We are."

"Do you love him?"

Jeremy considered lying, or telling her to fuck off and mind her own business, but instead he shrugged. "Yes. Don't try to talk me out of it, either. You'd be making a hypocrite of yourself."

"I know that. I just want you to be careful."

Jeremy sighed and fidgeted with his paper napkin, crumpling it in his fist before remembering he was going to need it—he'd ordered a pulled pork sandwich—and smoothing it back out on the table again. "If I said that to you, you'd be all in my face about not judging Stefan because of what he is. So why do you get to say it to me?"

"Because you're my baby brother, and I worry because I'm not going to be around as much next year."

"You don't have anything to worry about." Jeremy insisted. "I think Damon has proved by now that he isn't out to hurt or manipulate me. It's not about anybody else except us, okay? So you can back off a little."

"Just promise you'll tell me if Damon starts behaving like his old self again."

"Fine." Jeremy didn't mind making this deal with her, because he knew with pretty much every molecule in his body that his Damon was different from the Damon Elena was so convinced she knew.

The vampires returned, and Damon handed Jeremy a Corona while Stefan passed Elena some fruity frozen girly drink. Damon was nursing what Jeremy guessed was a Jack and Coke and goody-two-shoes Stefan stuck to his tap water.

And, because he was Stefan, he raised his stupid water glass for a toast. "To beach vacations. And family."

It was bad luck or something not to clink on a toast, so Jeremy, Damon and Elena all dutifully clinked their glasses (or bottle, in Jeremy's case) together with Stefan's.

Damon grabbed Jeremy's hand under the table, and Elena and Stefan smiled at each other over the tops of their glasses and Jeremy couldn't help thinking that this maybe wasn't the worst idea ever. Although if Stefan implied that they were all one big happy family ever again, Jeremy was pretty sure he would throw up. He spent way too much time getting naked with Damon to _ever_ want to think about being related to him.


	19. Everything

_**A/N: This chapter is dedicated to all my lurkers. I know you're out there, reading this fic but keeping your opinions to yourself. I'd love to hear from you! **_**=D**

_**Probably no updates for a few days. I'm headed home again, home again, jiggity jig (gotta love frequent flier miles) so I'll have international travel and jet lag to contend with before I'm up to writing again.

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Damon never used to have nightmares. Why would he? He was already scarier than anything his subconscious could conjure up. It wasn't necessarily that he was a vampire—although he was certainly some people's idea of a nightmare. It was more that he had nothing to lose, so he had nothing to fear.

But for the past week and a half, Damon had spent every night dreaming of Klaus: his bony, white hands wrapped around Jeremy's neck, squeezing tightly as Jeremy's eyelids fluttered shut and his body slumped. Dream Damon would twist roughly against the vervain-laced rope that was burning his wrists, desperate to be free or at least catch a glimpse of Jeremy's Gilbert ring. And at the point that Klaus let go of Jeremy and the teenager dropped like a stone, heavy and lifeless, Damon's would wake, screaming and shaking and sweating, tangled in the sheets.

It didn't matter that Jeremy had been wearing his ring and Elijah had driven a stake through Klaus' heart at the same time that Bonnie, Luka and Luka's father lit him on fire. Damon couldn't shake the image of Jeremy sprawled out on the ground, so still, for the almost five minutes it had taken him to come back. In those five minutes, Damon really had been convinced that somehow Klaus was stronger than the magic in Jeremy's ring.

"Day," Jeremy's hands were stroking his face and his hair and his back, "Day, c'mon. I'm right here. I'm okay. You're okay."

Damon stopped thrashing and sagged against Jeremy, his face fitting perfectly in the crook of Jeremy's neck. He took a shaky breath. "Sorry."

"Shush." Jeremy inched back towards the headboard, propping himself up against the pillows, and wrapped his arms tightly around Damon. Damon pressed his ear to Jeremy's chest, just over his heart, listening to the steady thump-thump-thumping. He'd been doing this a lot since that day. It was surprisingly reassuring, and his primary reaction was no longer thirst. He'd switched back to blood bags for the time being, because the idea of taking anything from Jeremy right now made him feel ill and dizzy and afraid.

Jeremy pushed Damon's sweat-dampened hair back off of his forehead, and Damon nuzzled against his hand.

"Were you a cat in another life?" Jeremy teased.

"Probably."

Damon's eyelids were drooping heavily and he forced them open again. Sleep was a terrifying place; here was better.

"Distract me." He told Jeremy, his voice drowsy. "Keep me awake. Please."

Jeremy nodded and leaned towards the edge of the bed. His fingers fumbled for the strap of his backpack and when he found it, he tugged it closer. After rummaging around inside it blindly for a few moments, his hand closed around his sketchbook.

"Wanna see?" Jeremy asked. Damon nodded. He moved to sit between Jeremy's legs, his back against Jeremy's chest and his head on Jeremy's shoulder. Jeremy dropped the sketchbook in his lap and opened to the first page.

Damon flipped through the pages slowly, taking time to really look at each sketch. Jeremy had experimented with different styles and materials, but for the most part, every drawing was of Damon.

"Should I be creeped out?" Damon joked feebly.

Jeremy dropped a kiss on Damon's shoulder, and Damon could feel his smile. Damon flipped back to the first drawing, the one from months previous.

"Seems so long ago," Damon said, studying the drawing of himself sleeping.

"I know." Jeremy agreed.

"Don't think I'll ever sleep like that again."

"That's the exhaustion talking."

Damon set the sketchbook aside and snuggled closer to Jeremy.

"You should go to sleep." Jeremy whispered. Damon turned to look at him, his eyes wide and fearful. Jeremy pressed a soft kiss to Damon's lips. "I'll be here."

Jeremy scooted down the bed and curled onto his side, holding Damon against his body protectively.

"Love you," Damon said, burying his face in Jeremy's neck again.

"Love you too, Day. Get some rest."

There was a part of Damon that wished he could go back, to be the vampire with nothing to lose again. But that was impossible. You couldn't go back to nothing after having everything.


	20. Fight

_**A/N: Loved hearing from some of the de-lurked lurkers last chapter! **_**=D **

_**Thank you to all you lovely, wonderful reviewers. You make it so much more fun to write this story.**_

_**Incidentally, since I have no real plans of stopping anytime soon and since I've accepted that this fic really is never going to have a plot, I had a bit of an idea. Maybe you've noticed all the chapter titles have been nouns (with one exception—cookies if you can spot it). Feel free to leave me some noun prompts and I'll see if I can work any of them in. They can be abstract nouns or concrete nouns, as long as they're one word. Just nothing too racy, because I'm pretty committed to my 'T' rating. **_**;)

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"Jesus, Damon, sometimes I really fucking hate you."

"Well, you're not exactly a picnic yourself."

"That's funny considering you're just keeping me around to feed you, right?"

"Of course. Obviously. I just want your blood."

Damon didn't know how the fight started. He never did. One minute they were teasing each other and the next they were hurling abuse at each other across the room. He was pretty sure Jeremy had started this one though. But maybe it had been him.

"Well if that's the case, I'll just go then!"

"That's fine. Leave. You're getting really good at it. You've definitely got the door-slamming thing down. But maybe work on the angry stomping this time. I just didn't buy it last time."

Jeremy flipped Damon off, and Damon resisted the urge to reach out and snap Jeremy's finger. That was definite progress. A year ago he would have snapped it no question. A year ago he'd snapped Jeremy's _neck_ for no reason at all.

Damon felt a little bit ill at the thought, proof that he really cared more about Jeremy walking out than he let on. But they both knew that already. This was just like any of their other fights. Fighting was a normal couple thing.

That didn't mean Damon liked it though. He never felt closer to the unstable, unpredictable, heartbroken Damon of the past than when he was arguing with Jeremy. There was a tiny, traitorous voice in the back of his head that would whisper horrible things, things like suggesting that breaking Jeremy's finger would be a good idea, and it would be so easy to listen to that voice.

Damon poured himself a drink and tossed it back quickly, but it didn't help. Neither did the second. Or the third. He knew nothing was going to until he and Jeremy made up, but it was definitely not for lack of trying. He left his glass behind, but brought the bottle, heading down the stairs into the room where he kept his blood bag cooler. Despite Jeremy's accusation that Damon was only keeping him around for mealtimes, he hadn't fed on Jeremy in months now. The thought of it still made him shudder. Damon didn't believe it was permanent and if it was, it probably wasn't the worst thing in the world. At least Jeremy wasn't in any danger from him that way.

That was stupid, though. For as long as he was a vampire and Jeremy was human, Jeremy would be in danger. Damon's self-control was irrelevant. One careless moment could become a disaster in the blink of an eye. The ring could only protect Jeremy from direct harm. It was useless against anything that happened indirectly.

_Stop being such a lame, Twilight vampire, _he thought angrily. Jeremy was a big boy. If he wanted out or felt threatened, he would say so.

* * *

Jeremy lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His anger had ebbed since leaving the boardinghouse—the walk home usually had that effect on him. He hadn't intended to provoke Damon into a fight. He wasn't a sadist; he didn't enjoy arguing with Damon, especially because of how guilty he felt afterwards. Somehow he was _always_ the one that said the more hurtful things. He didn't know why. Damon was the more eloquent of the two of them; he could hurt Jeremy without even trying too hard, probably.

_I really fucking hate you_. It kept echoing around in his head, making him flinch every time he thought about it. It was so _wrong_, such a lie, and yet he still said it. He hadn't missed the way Damon had reacted. Someone else might not have noticed it. Someone who didn't know Damon the way Jeremy did. But Jeremy saw the way Damon's jaw had clenched tightly, just for a second and how he'd crossed his arms over his chest. Those were things Damon did when he felt vulnerable and attacked, and Jeremy _kept_ making him feel that way for no apparent reason.

He rolled onto his side to grab his phone off his nightstand before flopping onto his back. He held down speed dial three.

Damon's phone rang three times.

"Yeah?"

"Wanna come over?" Jeremy asked.

"Not really."

"I know. But will you?"

"Two minutes."

Damon kept his word and climbed gracefully through Jeremy's window just barely two minutes later.

It was October and he was in his leather jacket again. Jeremy had forgotten over the summer how much he liked Damon in the leather jacket. Damon leaned against Jeremy's desk, his expression guarded.

"I'm sorry." Jeremy said quietly. "I didn't mean it. Any of it. Especially the part about hating you."

Jeremy looked so guilty and sad that Damon couldn't help walking across the room and putting his arms around him.

"I know that, Jer. Can we maybe do this fighting thing a little less often? Because it really fucking scares me."

Jeremy pulled away and looked up at Damon's face. "Are you drunk?"

"Pretty drunk, yes. Blood _and_ booze. How'd you guess?"

"Sober Damon doesn't usually admit to being afraid."

"Ah. Well. Drunk Damon loses his brain-mouth filter."

"I know. Why does fighting scare you?"

"Because I feel like the old me. And I could hurt you. I could be him again."

"Damon." Jeremy leveled him with one of his _don't be stupid_ stares. "I wouldn't let you."

Damon barked out a laugh and pointed at his own chest. "Vampire." He pointed at Jeremy. "Human. Do we see the problem with your logic?"

"It doesn't have to be that way." Jeremy said quietly.

It took Damon a moment to catch on. "Jer."

"You sound like Elena." Jeremy complained. "It's not a stupid idea, so don't look at me like that. And you can't pretend you _haven't _considered it."

"I didn't say it was stupid. And yeah, I have thought about it. But I don't want to talk about it now."

"Why not? Because I'm too young to think for myself?" Jeremy demanded.

"Stop trying to pick another fight. Can we just shelve this conversation for a time when I'm not totally wasted?"

"Oh. Okay."

"Good. Move over. I feel about ready to pass out now."

Jeremy laughed and moved over to the side of the bed while Damon shrugged out of his jacket, toed out of his shoes and stepped out of his jeans. He crawled into bed with Jeremy in his t-shirt and boxers.

"I really am sorry." Jeremy whispered.

"I _know_, Jer. Go to sleep."

But Jeremy couldn't. He lay awake, thinking about the conversation they had ahead of them. Elena was going to be so pissed.


	21. Gift

_**A/N: Prompt for this chapter came from the lovely **_**onecoldn'tsee**_**, whose reviews never fail to make me smile. **_

_**I've got a pretty good working list of nouns going, but I'm perfectly happy to add to it if anybody gets an idea and would like the prestige of having their name underlined up here in the author's note. C'mon. You know you want to. **_**;)

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Bonnie used to joke with Elena about being psychic, pretending that the tingly feeling she got in the pit of her stomach was nothing, and the brief flashes of something that could have been the future were just déjà vu or symptoms of an overactive imagination. Grams had stomped those notions out the first time they talked about what it meant to be a witch—the first time Bonnie hadn't written it off because she was convinced Grams was just drunk, anyway.

The first rule, Grams had said, was to trust her intuition. So that's what she was doing. She pressed the doorbell a second time, and this time she heard somebody thundering down the stairs. It _had_ to be Jeremy. Jenna didn't galumph around like an elephant and Bonnie always got the impression that Alaric felt like a visitor in the Gilberts' house ninety-eight percent of the time, and therefore never slammed doors, stomped his feet, raised his voice or made his presence known any more than absolutely necessary.

The door swung open and there Jeremy was, his hair unruly and his t-shirt on inside out and his jeans hanging low around his hips without his belt. It didn't take a psychic to figure out Damon was probably upstairs.

"Uh, hey." Jeremy said, lifting an eyebrow at her.

It was _so_ Damon that Bonnie had to hold back a grin. "Hi."

"You do know Elena doesn't get home til tomorrow, right?"

"I know." Bonnie rolled her eyes. Honestly. She and Elena talked every night and texted at least once an hour. Jeremy really could be quite oblivious sometimes.

"So you're here to see me."

"Only briefly. Can I come in?"

"You probably shouldn't. You aren't one of Day's favorite people. Sorry."

"That isn't a newsflash. It's fine. We can talk out here. It's really only going to take five minutes."

Jeremy stepped out onto the porch and pulled the door closed behind him. They both walked towards the porch swing and sat on opposite ends.

"What's up?" Jeremy asked. "How's school?"

"School's good. Not as exciting as Duke, I'm sure, but Roanoke suits me just fine."

"That's good. I'm glad you're, you know, happy." Jeremy shrugged, like he wasn't really sure whether she was happy or not, but he was going to presume that she was. Bonnie had never really managed to put her finger on Jeremy. Once she was certain she had him pegged, he went and did a one-eighty on her. When he'd been interested in her, she could only see her best friend's little brother. When she finally realized he was more than that and made up a bogus story about Luka to get him to come to prom with her, he'd insisted they were just friends. When she found out about him and Damon, she'd been so sure there was something wrong there, but when she saw them together on the fourth of July they'd looked so _right_.

It made her slightly wary about what she was about to do, because she really didn't know how Jeremy would take it. He might be offended; he might be grateful; he might throw it back in her face for making assumptions.

Except it wasn't an assumption, the stern Grams-voice the back of her head insisted. It was intuition.

"I have something for you." Bonnie stuck her hand into her purse, her fingers closing around the ring she'd bought and spelled a few weeks ago. Originally, she was going to stick it in the mail, but it seemed silly since she'd be coming home for Thanksgiving.

"Is it a curse?" Jeremy asked warily.

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "No. Let's call it a gift."

Jeremy frowned and Bonnie passed him the ring.

"Is this…?"

"Yeah."

"But I'm not…"

"No. But you might be, right? And what are the chances you're going to be anywhere near a witch when it happens?"

"But you're anti-vampire."

Bonnie sighed. "I'm starting to learn that being a witch means I'm in the supernatural club whether I want to be or not. And I'm not anti-vamp, exactly. I was just very strongly against what Damon was doing to innocent people. And he's not doing that anymore."

Jeremy looked down at the ring in his hands twisting it in circles a few times. "Thanks for not picking an ugly one."

"I considered it," Bonnie grinned. "But I thought I'd go easy on you if you've got to wear it for eternity."

Jeremy looked a little shell-shocked at the idea.

"Safe to assume you and Damon haven't discussed it too much?" Bonnie guessed.

"It's come up a few times. But it's not exactly a decision you make lightly, you know?"

Bonnie didn't know, but she nodded anyway. "I should get going. I get the feeling you and Damon were in the middle of something."

The tips of Jeremy's ears turned red and it was pretty cute. Bonnie couldn't decide if it was cute in an _awww, Elena's little brother _way or an _awww, hot boy is shy_ kind of way.

"I'm sure I'll see you tomorrow when Elena gets back." Jeremy said.

"Probably." Bonnie smiled.

"Hey Bonnie." Jeremy stopped her as she was about to walk down the stairs and back to her car. He pulled her into a hug that lasted a little bit longer than necessary. "Thank you." He said, once he released her. "It means a lot."

She smiled at him, ignoring the way her stomach had tightened and her heart had flip-flopped when his arms were around her.

"You're welcome."

With that, she turned and walked back to her car. As she backed out of the driveway, she couldn't help looking up at Jeremy's bedroom window. Damon was standing, looking down at her, and she was pretty sure she saw him smile.

Then again, her eyesight was one of the few totally human things about her, and there was a bit of a glare on the window, and she had been known to have a bit of an overactive imagination.


	22. Game

_**A/N: Today's prompt is courtesy of Gamer4Life89. **_

_**You all know you want to suggest some nouns. It's fuuuunnn.

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**_

There was nothing more irritating than your baby brother showing up to cramp your style, Damon decided. Because he couldn't think of another reason that Stefan would leave his precious Elena long enough to drive back to Mystic Falls. He was pretty sure it _wasn't_ just to raid Damon's collection of expensive single malt scotch. Although Damon was grateful Stefan had gone for the scotch, since both he and Jeremy were partial to the bourbon.

"To what do I owe the honor of your esteemed presence, little brother?" Damon asked. He tossed his jacket across the back of a leather club chair and poured himself a drink.

Stefan sighed heavily. "I think you know."

"Cryptic does not look good on you, Stefan."

"Elena told me."

"You really aren't heading in the right direction if you're trying to be more clear."

"You're going to change Jeremy." Stefan said, enunciating like he was talking to a particularly slow five-year-old.

"Now you're just insulting my intelligence."

"Jesus, Damon, could you stop being so cagey? I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you."

"I know. You're wearing your serious face and everything."

"Damon, c'mon. This isn't something to be taken lightly."

"The last time I checked, Stefan, this wasn't up to you anyway. So why do you care?"

"It's the most selfish thing you could ever do."

"You would know."

Stefan flinched, and Damon smirked. He'd intended that dig to hurt, after all.

"Do you realize what you're getting into? It's not like Isobel. You aren't going to change Jeremy and he's just going to disappear."

"Guess I'll just have to find another way to get rid of him then. Poison, maybe."

"Damon." Stefan crossed his arms over his chest.

"Stefan." Damon imitated him.

"Are you really sure you want to spend the rest of eternity with _Jeremy_?"

Damon's eyes narrowed dangerously, but Stefan continued.

"It seems a little ridiculous, even for you. He's a self-centered teenager with an unhealthy interest in the supernatural."

"You're singing a different tune." Damon said, refusing to rise to Stefan's bait. "In fact, I think you're trying to manipulate me. You want me to prove to you that I'm serious about Jeremy, that I've _changed_. Well, I'm not going to play this game with you, Stefan."

"Damon, I'm not playing a game."

"You are. And everybody thinks _I'm_ the manipulative one."

"I just had to make sure you weren't doing this for the wrong reasons."

"And who gets to decide what the wrong reasons are? You? Elena?" Damon couldn't help smirking at Stefan's guilty expression. "All she has to do is say jump, right? Well, since you're so happy to be her errand boy, here's a little message for Elena. The things that happen between Jeremy and me are none of her goddamn business."

"Damon—

"I'm leaving, Stefan. I'd prefer it if you weren't here when I got back."

"Damon, wait."

"No."


	23. Tease

_**A/N: Today's prompt comes from **_**sleepwell**_**, who pointed out that we've been a little low on the slashy slash for the past few chapters. ;)**_

_**I'd also just like to take a moment to thank EVERYBODY reading this fic. I am truly blown away by the response it's getting. All of your comments never fail to bring a smile to my face.**_

_**

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**_

"I'm sorry." Jeremy said, apologizing in advance for what was sure to be a supremely awkward evening. "I tried to tell her this was a bad idea, but now that Rick knocked her up, she's getting all parental."

Damon shrugged and stepped across the threshold. He pulled his leather jacket off, revealing a black zip-up hoodie that was slightly too big for him. Jeremy recognized it instantly, from the splash of red paint on the shoulder to the frayed cuffs.

"Did you steal that from me?" Jeremy asked, mostly to distract himself from the wave of pure, possessive _want _that hit him, seeing Damon in his sweatshirt.

Damon smirked. "Ages ago. Guess it's not one of your favorites."

It was now. Although Jeremy didn't think he ever really wanted it back. He just wanted to watch Damon wear it.

Damon's eyes danced, like he knew exactly what he was doing, and he brushed past Jeremy, heading into the kitchen. Jeremy stayed put for a moment, taking a deep breath and just listening to Damon congratulating Jenna and Rick on the baby.

"Jeremy, what are you doing?" Rick called from the kitchen. "Dinner's ready."

Jeremy crossed the threshold and took his seat at the table next to his boyfriend. Damon was wearing his most charming smile and asking Jenna questions about due dates and names and Jeremy wasn't sure if he was more alarmed or touched by Damon's efforts.

Damon reached across Jeremy for the salad, and his breath ghosted across Jeremy's neck, sending shivers down the teenager's spine. Jeremy's eyes darted to look at Damon, and he could tell from the small smirk on Damon's face that it was entirely intentional.

"Oh! I forgot the bread," Jenna said, starting to get up.

"Let me," Damon stood and crossed the kitchen in a few strides, grabbing the basket of sliced baguette off the island and bringing it back to the table. His fingers, slightly colder than the normal human body temperature, brushed across the back of Jeremy's neck. Jeremy was certain he'd never broken out in goosebumps so quickly in his entire life.

They made it through the first fifteen minutes of dinner mostly uneventfully. Rick and Damon were talking college football while Jeremy pushed his food around his plate, too apprehensive to eat.

"Jeremy," Jenna leveled him with her best expectant look, "Have you thought any more about college? It's getting close to the deadline."

Jeremy shoveled a forkful of mac-and-cheese into his mouth to avoid answering for a few seconds. "Uh. No. I don't think college is for me."

Jenna blinked rapidly a few times, like she was going to start crying. She'd been doing that a lot since she found out she was pregnant.

"Jeremy and I have been talking about travelling." Damon said. It was a conversation they'd had once, and it was more a let's-get-the-fuck-out-of-Mystic Falls thing than a let's-broaden-our-horizons thing, but it sounded a hell of a lot better than 'college isn't for me'. Jeremy shot Damon a grateful look and nearly jumped out of his skin when Damon's hand landed on his knee and skimmed up his leg, settling in the middle of Jeremy's thigh.

Fuck. Jeremy could tell from the expression on Jenna's face that she'd asked a question, but he was way too distracted by the fact that Damon's hand was climbing farther north agonizingly slowly.

"Uh…what?" Jeremy asked, and his voice sounded shaky and unnatural.

"Where are you planning on going? Europe?"

"Road trip." Jeremy blurted gracelessly.

The warm weight of Damon's hand disappeared from Jeremy's inseam, and he wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed. He could see Damon's smug smirk in the corner of his eye.

"We haven't planned much yet." Damon said smoothly.

Jenna was dishing out slices of apple pie for dessert when Damon's hand curled around Jeremy's arm, his fingertips stroking light circles on the inside of Jeremy's wrist.

This was pure torture. Jeremy had wanted to drag Damon upstairs from the moment he'd walked into the house wearing that sweatshirt, and Damon had known it and now he was just making it worse. Or better. It was a strange gray area.

Jeremy was pretty sure he _growled_ when Jenna suggested they continue the awkward bonding night with a movie, and Damon's hand slipped up underneath the hem of his t-shirt, ghosting across his skin.

"I hate you." Jeremy hissed as he and Damon collected the dishes from the table and Rick and Jenna consulted the DVD cabinet.

"You love me." Damon corrected. He grabbed Jeremy by the front of his t-shirt and pulled him in for a lingering kiss, his tongue sliding slowly against Jeremy's, and his fingers threading into Jeremy's hair.

They were interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing loudly, and Jeremy pulled away, breathless, to see Jenna leaning against the island, her eyebrow raised.

"Maybe we should call it a night." She suggested, and her expression left no room for argument.

Damon plastered on his most charming smile again. "Dinner was great."

"Good night, Damon." Jenna said, her tone final.

Jeremy walked Damon to the front door.

"Told you she was getting parental." Jeremy whispered. "See you upstairs?"

Damon grinned and pulled Jeremy in for another kiss that was over far too quickly, as far as Jeremy was concerned.

"See you tomorrow, Jer." Damon smirked, before opening the door and heading down the driveway to the Camaro.

"Fucking tease." Jeremy muttered.

Damon glanced over his shoulder, "I heard that."


	24. Talk

_**A/N: Today's prompt comes from **_**CrowX**_** and I think it's a chapter you've all been waiting for. **_**;)

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**

Jeremy unlocked the front door and stepped into his house, dropping his backpack in the entryway because Aunt Jenna wasn't home to tell him not to. He locked the door behind him and shuffled into the kitchen for a snack.

A bowl of Froot Loops and half a _Friends_ rerun later, Jeremy was already bored. If he had any friends, he'd be sending out a mass text, inviting them over for a party since his aunt and future uncle were out of town for the weekend. Instead, he fished his phone out of his pocket and held down speed dial three.

Damon answered on the third ring. "Is this a booty call?"

"No."

"Are Jenna and Rick gone?"

"Yeah. They won't be back until Sunday night."

"And you'll be all by your lonesome." Jeremy could hear Damon's grin. "I'll be there soon."

.

Jeremy was on his second episode of _Friends _when Damon arrived.

"What took you so long?" Jeremy complained.

"Don't say I never take care of you," Damon smirked, and passed Jeremy a brown paper bag that smelled like takeout from the Grill.

"Love you," Jeremy said, ripping open the bag and pulling out the Styrofoam container. He ate a few fries and flipped the TV off. Damon dropped onto the couch next to him, toeing out of his motorcycle boots and putting his feet up on the leather ottoman.

Jeremy ate a few more fries before saying cautiously, "I think we should talk."

Damon's expression became guarded and he snagged a fry from the takeout container. "About?"

"What do you think?" Jeremy rolled his eyes. "We've been avoiding the subject for a while now."

"Let's talk then."

"I want you to turn me." Jeremy said. "This weekend seems like a pretty good opportunity."

"No."

"No?" Jeremy scowled.

"Hear me out. I'm not going to go all Edward Cullen on you. If you want to be a vampire, I'll turn you. But I've already told you it's not a life I chose for myself. I just want you to think about it."

"No offense, Day, but I was sold on the vampire thing before you were even in the picture. You're just an added bonus at this point." Jeremy's lips quirked into a smile at his joke.

"Jer," Damon reached out like he was going to grab Jeremy's hand, but changed his mind. "This is sort of a big deal. We can't just laugh it off."

"I know. But you're kind of freaking me out."

"Why?"

"I thought you would be a little more…eager for me to be a vampire."

"Babe, things would be a lot less complicated if you were. And I want to turn you."

"Then why do you look like it's the last thing you want?" Jeremy frowned.

Damon sighed and moved over so he could slip his arm around Jeremy's waist. He pulled the younger man against him. "Stefan came to talk to me."

"When?"

"A week after Thanksgiving. Bonnie told Elena about the ring."

"What did he say?"

"He was his usual superior self. He wanted to remind me how selfish it would be for me to turn you and to make sure I was doing it for the right reasons."

"Asshole. It's not any of his business. Or Elena's." Jeremy pulled back to study Damon's face. "You don't _agree_ with him, do you?"

"No. But he does have a point about doing it for the right reasons."

"Fuck, Damon. The _only_ reason I'm doing this is you. I don't care about being immortal or having fangs or being able to run really fast or being super strong. I want to be with you and I figure it will be better if we're equals." Jeremy's jaw tightened for a moment. "If you don't want me around for the rest of eternity, I guess, you should probably say something now."

"Don't be an idiot." Damon said, but Jeremy didn't miss the affection in his voice.

"Does that mean we're agreed, then?" Jeremy looked like he was holding back a grin.

"Yeah. Still not gonna happen this weekend though."

"Why not?"

"Because you're going to be a little out of control for the first couple months, at least. Rick will put a stake through my heart if anything happens to Jenna and the unborn spawn."

Jeremy sighed. "That makes sense."

"I know it does, babe."

"So when?"

"As soon as we leave Mystic Falls. Gives you something else to look forward to, right?"

Jeremy smiled, and slipped his arms around Damon's shoulders, pulling him closer. Damon closed the distance between them, fusing their lips together in a kiss, their tongues dancing together and their hands beginning to roam each other's bodies.

"Day," Jeremy pulled away, "do me a favor."

"Hmmm?"

"Stop listening to Stefan. He's an idiot and he doesn't understand the way things are with us."

"All right." Damon smirked before closing the distance between himself and his boyfriend again.


	25. Toothpaste

_**A/N: Today's prompt comes from Moriarty's Minion, who set me quite a challenge. It's the first time I've ever tried writing a chapter about toothpaste. **_**=D

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**

"Honestly, babe, this isn't rocket science."

Jeremy glanced up from where he was sprawled across Damon's bed, thumbing through Damon's slightly battered copy of _Gone With the Wind_.

"This is really your favorite book?" Jeremy pulled a face.

"We can have a literary discussion later. This is more important." Damon crossed his arms over his chest and frowned.

"What?" Jeremy frowned back.

"I just want you to put the cap on the toothpaste when you're done."

Jeremy snorted. "Seriously. What's going on?"

"Seriously, you're a slob. It's not that hard. Twist off, squeeze, twist on."

"That sounds kinda pornographic." Jeremy smirked. Damon didn't smirk back, so Jeremy knew he was in real trouble. "Sorry." He said, although it was lacking sincerity. "I forgot I was dealing with OCD Damon.

"I'm not obsessive compulsive. But the counter in that bathroom is Italian marble and I have to clean it every time you drop great big green globs of toothpaste on it."

"Which part of that statement was supposed to convince me that you _don't_ have OCD?"

Damon shook his head and turned on his heel. After a few moments, Jeremy heard the surge of water in the shower. He sighed and slid out of Damon's comfortable bed reluctantly. Damon was already in the shower when Jeremy reached the bathroom. The teenager wandered over to the sink and washed the toothpaste off the countertop.

"Happy now?" Jeremy called to Damon. He knew the vampire could hear him, so it was obvious from Damon's lack of response that he was being ignored. Jeremy sighed again and pulled off the t-shirt he'd stolen from Damon. He shucked off his boxers and stepped into the shower with his boyfriend.

Damon had his back to him, still deliberately ignoring him. Jeremy wrapped his arms around Damon's waist and pressed a kiss to the side of his neck.

"I'm sorry, Day." Jeremy slid his hands down to Damon's hips and steered him around, so they were facing each other.

"No you're not." Damon grumbled stubbornly.

"I think it's the stupidest argument we've ever had, but I am sorry."

Damon's lips twitched slightly, so Jeremy knew he was heading in the right direction. He trailed kisses up Damon's neck, murmuring apologies as he went. Damon looped his arms around Jeremy's waist and pulled him closer, under the hot spray of the water. From there it became the slow slide of tongues and caresses of lips and hands and a symphony of gasps and sighs.

It occurred to Damon that he should pick fights over trivial things like toothpaste more often, if this would be the result.

"Does that mean you _don't_ want me to put the cap on the toothpaste then?" Jeremy smirked, as he toweled off his hair. He crossed over to the sink, slowly and deliberately unscrewing the cap on the toothpaste and setting it back down on the counter.

"What would you do if I just…" Jeremy squeezed the tube and the black marble countertop was covered in splotches of mint green.

Damon lunged for him, flinging Jeremy over his shoulder easily.

"I guess you'll want to punish me for that," Jeremy laughed, as Damon tossed him on the bed.

The vampire grinned wickedly, and climbed into bed, straddling Jeremy's hips. He left a trail of open-mouthed kisses from Jeremy's navel up to his jaw and when he reached Jeremy's ear he hissed, "Babe, you have no idea."


	26. Play

_**A/N: No prompt today. This little drabble is all me.

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"Found you!" Damon sing-songed.

"Day, c'mon," Jeremy whined. "You have to play like a human. It's not fair."

Damon sighed. "Fine. You're it. No cheating."

Jeremy closed his eyes obediently and counted to fifty, knowing that Damon would be listening to make sure he didn't skip any numbers.

"Ready or not, here I come!" Jeremy called out, his voice echoing in the cavernous living room. He headed for the stairs.

Damon wasn't in his own room and he wasn't in Stefan's shrine to all things electronic, which really only left the study, which nobody ever used, and Stefan's bedroom. Jeremy pushed open Stefan's door to find Damon sprawled out across the comforter.

"You really can't grasp the concept of this game, can you?" Jeremy rolled his eyes.

"I'm hiding in plain sight, obviously."

Jeremy snorted a laugh. Damon hopped down off the bed and approached Jeremy, a predatory grin on his face. When he was close enough, he reached out and tapped Jeremy's shoulder, shouting, "Tag, you're it!"

He ran out of the room (at an acceptable human-speed) and Jeremy groaned before following. "Now you're just confusing two games."

Damon laughed, running down the stairs and into the living room. They froze at opposite ends of the couch, each waiting to see which direction the other would go in. Damon faked left, but Jeremy didn't buy it and went right instead. He tripped on the edge of the carpet and unintentionally tackled Damon.

"Oof."

"Now I know why you don't play sports." Damon smirked.

Jeremy swatted his shoulder. "Shut up. I could be seriously injured."

"I'm sorry, babe." Damon said, but he was still grinning. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Jeremy got slowly to his feet. "You're it!"

He took off like a shot, out of the living room and up the stairs. Damon cheated and met him on the landing.

"No fair." Jeremy pouted again. Damon leaned forward and kissed Jeremy's pouting lips. Jeremy wrapped his arms around Damon's waist and pulled him flush against him. Their tongues tangled in a battle that Damon let Jeremy win.

Damon pulled away, and Jeremy frowned at him.

"C'mon." Damon said, tugging Jeremy by the front of his shirt. "I can think of a game we'll both win."

Jeremy grinned. "Is that right?"

"Umm-hmm." Damon nodded, his lips curving upward into a playful smile.

Jeremy allowed himself to be pulled up the stairs and into Damon's room. He grabbed Damon by the hips and started backing him towards the bed.

"Hey Day," Jeremy hissed in his ear. "If this is a game we both win, I guess it doesn't matter if I take control, right?"

Damon's eyes widened and Jeremy couldn't help laughing.


	27. Friendship

_**A/N: Today's prompt comes from **_**XxtogetherforneverxX, **_**who sent me the longest list of prompts I've ever seen. Seriously. **_

_**Also, just to throw this out there…how would people feel about bumping the rating up to 'M'? I'm not promising anything, but I have been attempting to write some smut for these two…

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**_

Jeremy sat in a booth by himself at the Grill. He had his sketchpad out and his headphones on. He'd ordered nothing but coffees all afternoon, and he knew the waitress was getting pissed at him for taking up a whole table and not ordering any food, but he couldn't bring himself to care. School had been especially sucky that day, and he hadn't been ready to go home to his hormonal aunt and his annoyingly affable history teacher. He'd set himself up in the corner booth at the Grill and spent the afternoon drawing. He knew he was getting suspicious and distrustful looks from most of his peers while he sat drawing, and he did his best to pretend he didn't care.

They didn't understand him. He didn't intend to sound whiny and emo, but it was true. It wasn't like it was news. Elena had gone through some major shit when their parents died, quitting the cheerleading squad and giving up on the Miss Mystic Falls stuff and it had made people pull away from her, but Jeremy had always been a loner. Even before the accident and everything that had happened since, he had always been that freak, Jeremy Gilbert, who spent too much time with his nose buried in a sketchbook to ever make friends.

The closest he'd gotten was Anna. And she didn't really count, considering they'd started sleeping together fairly early on. And then she died.

Jeremy was jolted from his drawing of two sophomore girls giggling over Matt every time he walked by. He glanced up to see Caroline had joined him in the booth. He flipped his sketchbook closed and tugged his headphones off.

"Uh, hey."

"Hello," Caroline smiled brightly at him, in her peppy, perky, cheerleader way.

"Can I help you?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Jeez. Don't you ever get bored with the Gloomy Gilbert routine?"

"Sorry?"

"I don't get it. You're totally hot, and you've got the mysterious artist thing going on and yet you have zero friends."

"Gee, thanks, Caroline."

"What? I'm just pointing out the obvious here."

"You're about sixteen years too late."

"Do you want a fag hag?"

"What?"

"Because I'm sort of in the market for a gay BFF."

"Jesus, Caroline."

"Is that a no?"

"Yeah. I'm not even gay."

"Aw," Caroline pouted. "So you're not screwing Damon anymore? Because you guys were really hot."

"No. I mean yes. We're together, but I'm bisexual. I guess. I don't know. I don't have to justify this to you."

"Whoa. Chill. The zero friends thing is _totally _starting to make sense."

"What do you _want_, Caroline?"

"Sorr-_eee_." Caroline huffed. "I just saw you sitting here all sad and Eeyore and thought maybe you'd like some company."

"I'm not Eeyore." Jeremy protested. "I'm working." He waved the sketchbook in her face.

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest and pouted for all of ten seconds, before sighing in annoyance. "Fine. You dragged it out of me. I'm totally suffocating in this miserable town. Elena's off at Duke being all smart and lovey with Stefan and Bonnie's in Roanoke and the only person left here is Matt and things have been so awkward with him since the whole Tyler debacle. And I have to see him in my English class all the time. I wish I'd gone to Roanoke with Bonnie. I got in, you know. But my dad thought that since I have no idea what I want to do with my life I should go to community college first and my mom agreed and it's the first time they've agreed on _anything_ since my dad left, so I couldn't really say no. Plus, I can't exactly tell them that the chances that I'll find something I want to do for the rest of freaking _eternity_ are pretty slim. How about you? Are you going to college? Is Damon going with you? Am I going to be the only you-know-what left in this god-awful town?"

Jeremy muddled through her rapid-fire soliloquy and attempted to answer her questions. "No college. But yeah, you're going to be alone. Damon and I are leaving."

"Can I come too?" Caroline asked hopefully. "I won't, like, cock-block you guys or anything."

"Uh…"

"Jeez, Jeremy, you really aren't catching on here. I'm practically begging and you aren't getting it."

"I don't know what you're asking me. Or telling me."

"Thank god you're with Damon, because you're totally not boyfriend material. For a girl, I mean."

"Caroline," Jeremy's tone became exasperated. "Can you _please_ just get to the point?"

She stared down at the table, twisting his empty coffee mug in her hands. "I'm lonely. And I thought if you were lonely too... I'm not saying we have to be besties and, like, have sleepovers because I'm pretty sure Damon would stake me, but it might be nice to have a friend. Don't you think?"

Jeremy sighed. "I'm not really good at being friends with people."

Caroline lifted her shoulders and let them drop in a half-hearted shrug. "Neither am I. But this sucks, like, majorly."

Jeremy sighed again. If someone had told him even two weeks ago that _Caroline Forbes_ would be sitting opposite him at the Grill, looking like she was going to cry and practically begging him to be her friend, he would have laughed in their face.

Except Jeremy totally understood how she felt, especially after a day like today. It got mind-numbingly exhausting, going to school day after day, to sit by himself in the back row of every classroom, to eat his lunch alone in the art room, to be picked last for teams in gym class, to do all his Chem labs without a partner because he was the odd man out in a class of twenty-three, and spending every second of every day pretending like none of that bothered him. Now that Elena wasn't around to nag him, he could make it from first period until eighth without speaking to anyone. Being friends with Caroline wouldn't really help on the school front, but it might make things feel a little less awful. And he loved Damon, but he figured it couldn't hurt to spend some time with a person he wasn't having sex with and had no interest in ever having sex with (yeah, Caroline was hot, but she seemed a little insane, even for him).

So he slid his sketchbook back into his bag and stuffed his headphones in too, giving Caroline his full attention. The expression on her face became hopeful.

"You're right." He agreed. "It really does suck."

"Friends?" Caroline asked tentatively.

"Friends." Jeremy nodded.


	28. Fix

_**A/N: Trying something a little different today, in more ways than one... For those of you who didn't notice our new rating, consider this your warning: mature content ahead.

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There were times when Jeremy showed up at the boardinghouse to find Damon sitting on one of the sofas, an untouched drink in his hand and a fire crackling in the grate. Damon watched the flickering flames and rarely noticed Jeremy's presence until the boy touched him—lightly on the shoulder sometimes, or a hand stroking gently across the top of his head, or soft lips on his jaw.

Damon's mind is elsewhere, that much is obvious. From a distance, he looks relaxed but in reality he is anything but. He is on edge, a muscle in his jaw jumping, his hand clenched too tight around his drink, his other hand curled into a fist. Whatever Damon thinks about on these nights makes him angry.

Jeremy takes the glass from him, downing the drink so it won't go to waste. Damon's eyes flick up towards Jeremy, and they are deadened and sad. It makes Jeremy's blood run cold, every time he sees this expression on Damon's face. He's never asked what's wrong, because he knows it's something he can't fix.

Jeremy laces his fingers with Damon's and pulls the vampire to his feet. He doesn't say anything; he doesn't need to. Jeremy knows better than to look worried; he learned the first time that Damon will only take worry for pity and Damon loathes pity.

They cross the threshold into Damon's obsessively neat bedroom, Damon still tense and faraway. Jeremy tugs him towards the bed. He drops Damon's hand to work at the buttons on his shirt. Another night they would be tearing at clothes, ripping open buttons and yanking down zippers in a frenzied, giddy race. Nights like this are something else entirely.

Jeremy mouths his way across Damon's collarbone, sliding Damon's shirt off his shoulders. Damon's fingers curl around the hem of Jeremy's t-shirt, pulling it up and Jeremy steps back to tug it over his head, dropping it on the floor with Damon's shirt. Damon rests his forehead against Jeremy's shoulder for a moment, his hands skimming down Jeremy's back. Jeremy nudges Damon backwards and he stretches out on the white comforter in just his black jeans. Jeremy yanks his own jeans off, steps out of his boxers and toes out of his socks before joining Damon.

He trails open-mouthed kisses down Damon's chest while his fingers fumble with the buttons on Damon's jeans. He considers, not for the first time, tracking down the person who decided button-flies were a good idea and punching them in the face.

Damon lifts his hips so Jeremy can pull his jeans down, and Jeremy smirks upon discovering Damon is going commando. The jeans join the rest of their clothes in a crumpled puddle on the floor. Jeremy wraps a hand around Damon's stiffening cock, giving it a long, slow stroke and making the vampire hiss, his head dropping back onto the pillows. Jeremy covers Damon's body with his own, and they both lose themselves in warm acres of skin-on-skin.

Jeremy slithers down Damon's body, nibbling and sucking at his hipbone, leaving a mark that Damon probably won't notice for a day or two. Damon reaches, rummaging through the bedside drawer. He passes Jeremy the lube, and his expression switches to something needy and desperate.

Jeremy leans forward, capturing Damon's lips in a kiss he intends to be comforting but ends up just as desperate as Damon's expression. Damon gasps against Jeremy's mouth when the teenager slides a slick finger inside of him. It's not long before Jeremy has added a second, Damon rocking down on Jeremy's hand while his fingers hook to find Damon's prostate. When he does, the vampire tenses around him for a moment, his head flung back and his pupils blown wide, only a small ring of blue around the dark black. Jeremy drags his teeth down the side of Damon's neck.

"Now," Damon hisses. His voice is quiet yet insistent, his eyes pleading with Jeremy.

Jeremy slides back, stroking himself with his lube-slick hand. Damon watches, his hand curling around Jeremy's hip, his thumb stroking slowly back and forth across his hipbone. Jeremy isn't sure why, but something about that action seems the most desperate of all of them.

Jeremy lines himself up, before thrusting into Damon in a slow slide. He braces his hands on either side of Damon's head, and Damon wraps his legs around Jeremy's waist, pulling him in deeper. They stay frozen for a moment, Damon's arms looping around Jeremy, clinging to the feeling of being full and complete and not so fucking broken, while Jeremy can only focus on _tight_ and _heat_ and he thinks he could stay here forever.

But Damon has other ideas, pushing back against Jeremy, attempting to work up a rhythm. Jeremy only rolls his hips slightly, and Damon whines, his legs tightening around Jeremy's waist.

"Please," Damon whispers. His eyes lock with Jeremy's and the teenager can't refuse. He pulls out nearly all the way, before his hips jerk forward again, almost on their own, slamming back into Damon at the right angle to make him see stars. Jeremy sets a punishing pace, and Damon is meeting him, his hands digging into Jeremy's back.

Jeremy can see as Damon starts to come apart. He realizes tonight is going to be one of _those_ nights. If he's being honest with himself, though, he knew that from the moment he saw Damon staring into the fire.

Damon reaches between them, fisting his cock in time with Jeremy's thrusts. He comes with a strangled sob, and Jeremy follows as Damon clenches tight around him. Damon whimpers, clinging tightly to Jeremy, arms around his shoulders, legs around his waist, face buried against his neck. Jeremy's fingers tangle in the soft hair at the base of Damon's neck, stroking soothingly, his lips brushing across Damon's temple. He murmurs his love, and pretends not to notice the tears on his neck.

He wants to ask why there are nights like this, when Damon clings to him like he thinks he's going to fall apart if he lets go. He wants to ask why Damon feels broken and he wants to be able to offer more than a quick fix. But he doesn't need to ask the question. He already knows the answer.


	29. Hesitation

_**A/N: Sorry for the delay on this one—I started my new semester this week. (Not that three days would ever be considered a delay normally, but I really have been getting these chapters up quick, haven't I?)**_

_**Fair warning, there is an excess of parenthetical thoughts in this chapter. Dunno why, but Alaric feels like a guy who thinks in parentheses...**_

_**

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Alaric didn't tell Jenna the number of times he caught Jeremy sneaking out of the house at night. (Or back into his room in the morning, for that matter.) Rick didn't have death wish, after all. His pregnant fiancée would be perfectly happy to shoot the messenger and then march all the way over to the Salvatore boardinghouse and drag Jeremy back home by the ear. Especially since Rick never exactly tried to _stop_ Jeremy. He just would just nod at the teenager and shuffle into the kitchen to grab the ice cream Jenna had sent him downstairs for in the first place.

So he definitely wasn't prepared to encounter _Damon_ in the Gilberts' kitchen (which, really, he wondered if maybe he and Jenna should start thinking about moving, or at least changing _something_, so they could stop feeling like interlopers in a home that wasn't theirs), rooting through the freezer.

"Uh, hello?" Alaric greeted the vampire.

"Hey buddy." Damon grinned at him, his tone the especially sarcastic one he always saved for Rick.

"It's late. What are you doing here?"

"Aww, does baby Jeremy have a curfew? Because he gave me the impression that I'm welcome here any—a ha!" Damon pulled out a carton of Chunky Monkey.

"Jenna's gonna kill you." Alaric warned.

Damon rolled his eyes, "For sleeping in the same bed as her nephew? Is she going to alert the town elders and have me dragged through the street behind a horse? Because I'll have to check my schedule. I'm pretty busy with corrupting the innocent and stealing from blood banks."

Rick snorted a laugh. "No. For eating her ice cream. She'd gladly put a stake through your heart for that."

"This is assuming she ever figures out that I'm a vampire."

Alaric shrugged, "Do you really want to risk it?"

Damon tossed Rick the Chunky Monkey. "Whatever. I'm more of a Cherry Garcia kind of guy anyway."

Damon started to walk back out of the kitchen, and Rick couldn't help blurting out the question he'd been dwelling on since Jeremy and Damon had mentioned their intentions of leaving Mystic Falls.

"Are you going to turn Jeremy?"

Damon hesitated for a moment. "It's up to him." Damon said, his expression something Rick couldn't read and his tone something close to reluctance. He lifted his shoulders in a small shrug, a gesture that was so _not_ Damon that it threw Rick and he was left staring at the vampire's back as he walked out of the kitchen before Rick could stop him again.

Rick was pretty sure the hesitation meant something. Damon was one of the smartest (albeit the most devious) people Rick had ever encountered, and he doubted the vampire needed time to formulate his sentences. Especially ones that contained less than five syllables. Rick didn't want to blow a moment's hesitation out of proportion—there was the possibility he'd only caught Damon off-guard with his question, but he also believed Damon rarely did anything accidentally.

He wandered over to the drawer and grabbed two spoons, before realizing the ice cream carton felt pretty light in his hand and dropped one of the spoons back into its place.

As he climbed the stairs, he considered the implications of Jeremy's possible turning. He would be a vampire hunter with a niece who was his former wife's daughter, a nephew who was a newly-turned vampire, two potential vampire in-laws, and a wife and child who were totally in the dark about all of it.

He chuckled. The Gilberts, Salvatores and Saltzmans belonged on an episode of _Dark Shadows_.


	30. Drug

_**A/N: Today's prompt comes from **_**Moriarty's Minion**_**. **_

_**Just as a side-note, I'm still taking requests, and am willing to open the list up to verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. After thirty nouns, I'm feeling up for some other parts of speech. haha. **_

_**Happy reading, and I can't wait to hear what you think. **_**=D

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"Day, can I ask you something?" Jeremy's voice was quiet and his tone was cautious in the dim room.

"Hmm?" Damon murmured. He was stretched out comfortably, privately congratulating himself on owning a bed huge enough that he and Jeremy could both be in it without feeling crowded. Usually he liked post-coital cuddling but there were still times when he just wanted to starfish out and doze without getting touchy-feely. He considered himself lucky that Jeremy felt the same.

"You haven't bitten me since the summer."

"That's not a question."

Jeremy sighed heavily, and Damon could picture the expression on his face: chin jutting out a little, his lips pressed together in a straight line, rolling his eyes. "Why?"

"You know why."

"Still?" Jeremy sounded frustrated and incredulous at the same time. "If you're so reluctant to hurt me, what are you going to do in a couple months when you have to kill me?"

Damon tensed and was grateful that Jeremy wasn't close enough to notice. "I don't know." He admitted truthfully. It was easier to be honest like this, talking in the dark.

The sheets rustled as Jeremy turned to face him, but Damon stayed put. He suspected looking at Jeremy right now would be his undoing. There were times when his secret was on the tip of his tongue, trying to fight its way past his teeth.

"What if I told you I like it?"

"That's not a revelation, Jer. I already know you like it."

"Well, how about I miss it, then?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You seriously don't get thirsty at all around me?" Jeremy actually sounded a little offended.

"I don't know, babe. I don't think about it."

"So think about it."

Damon wished he could say that it wouldn't make a difference, that Jeremy's blood had lost its appeal. But he let go of his control, just a little bit, and it was like he was an addict in a room stocked full of his drug of choice. Jeremy's scent filled his nose, and his tongue felt heavy with the taste he could barely remember, and he could hear nothing except Jeremy's steadily beating heart. His fangs ached familiarly, and veins around his eyes throbbed. He reached blindly for Jeremy, who melted against him, willing and pliable and warm.

He pressed a kiss to the corner of Jeremy's mouth, then his lips trailed across his jaw and down to his neck. Jeremy's heart began to race wildly, and Damon couldn't help flicking his tongue teasingly against Jeremy's pulse-point, making him shiver. Damon threaded his fingers through the fingers on Jeremy's right hand, reassured by the cool, smooth presence of his Gilbert ring.

His fangs sunk easily into Jeremy's neck and the teenager hissed, tensing slightly before remembering it was better—_so much better_—if he relaxed. Damon could feel the anxiety leaving Jeremy's body as his mouth filled with the tangy, metallic flavor he'd been denying himself for so long. He'd forgotten that blood from an actual human was so far superior to blood out of a plastic bag and that blood from such a willing and eager donor was the best of all.

Jeremy's hands curled around Damon's hips, and he was practically purring with the heady feeling of the slow pull of the blood leaving his body. Damon's hand threaded into Jeremy's hair, angling his head slightly and Jeremy gasped as Damon's fangs sank in a little deeper.

"Day," Jeremy groaned, and his grip on Damon's hips tightened. "Little dizzy."

Damon pulled back instantly, fighting every single one of his vampire instincts. He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed deeply a few times and felt his fangs recede.

He cradled Jeremy's face in his hands, "You okay?"

Jeremy nodded, his eyes closed.

"You aren't going to pass out on me, are you?" Damon couldn't keep the worried edge out of his voice.

Jeremy chuckled weakly. "No. I'm cool. Although it might help if you weren't sitting on my lungs."

Damon slid off Jeremy. "I was just kidding," Jeremy murmured in protest, pulling Damon closer, intertwining their legs and pressing a kiss to Damon's shoulder. "Are _you _okay?"

Damon couldn't help laughing. "They never tell you how much fun it is, falling off the wagon."

Jeremy grinned. He closed the distance between them in a kiss that was playful at first, but became something deeper, with his tongue chasing Damon's and his hands sliding slowly across Damon's skin. Jeremy began to mouth his way down Damon's neck and chest, leaving a trail of open-mouthed kisses. He couldn't resist nipping at Damon's perfect hipbone, before wrapping a hand around Damon's stiff cock and stroking slowly, making the vampire shudder.

Damon rolled both of them and pulled Jeremy up onto his knees. Jeremy got with the program quickly, leaning forward to grip the headboard and shooting Damon a wicked grin over his shoulder. Damon grinned back, wondering if Jeremy realized the picture he made, kneeling on the bed with blood smeared across his neck and his ass in the air, grinning so smugly.

Damon gripped Jeremy's hips and slid inside him in a smooth thrust; Jeremy still slick and open from earlier that evening. He stayed still for a long moment, but Jeremy groaned and pushed back against him, forcing momentum. Damon pulled out nearly all the way, before slamming his hips forward, setting a fast, rough rhythm.

Damon reached around Jeremy and fisted his neglected cock, as their rhythm became more erratic. Jeremy came quickly, groaning Damon's name while Damon buried himself inside Jeremy a final time and came too. They collapsed bonelessly onto the bed, riding out their orgasms together, and this time Damon was quite happy to stay close to Jeremy, his face nuzzled against Jeremy's neck, which still smelled like a combination of sweat and blood, and his arms around Jeremy's waist.

"Aren't you wishing you'd never stopped drinking my blood?" Jeremy asked, his tone saying 'I told you so'.

"Shut up, babe." Damon said affectionately.


	31. Mine

_**A/N: It so happens that I have two people to acknowledge today. **_**:) **_**Thank you to **_**Sarina **_**(whose idea I used, but not the actual noun) and **_**Horrid Nightmares Haunt Me**_**, who gave me the title prompt. **_

_**And thank you to all of my readers, whether you're a reviewer or a lurker. This story is getting an insane number of hits, and I am thrilled with how well it's being received.

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**_

Jeremy surveyed his reflection, his fingers prodding gingerly at the bruise blossoming around his eye. As was the case with most black eyes, it looked a lot worse than it felt, but it still fucking hurt.

"Jer," Jenna called up the stairs, "Dinner's ready."

"Down in a minute," Jeremy called back. He filled a glass of water from the sink and tossed back two Tylenol, hoping it might make the bruise stop throbbing. He already had his excuse ready for Jenna when she freaked out, but he wondered if she'd actually buy it, or if her scary maternal sixth-sense had already kicked in and she'll be able to tell that he was lying. He really didn't want her to make a big deal out of this.

It was just he and Jenna tonight, since Alaric had a staff meeting. "Smells good," he commented as he sat down. Jenna grabbed his plate and served him some of the pot roast before she even looked at him. She glanced up when she passed him his plate.

"Oh my god, Jeremy."

Jeremy rolled his eyes, "It's not a big deal. It doesn't even hurt that much."

"What happened?" Jenna demanded, holding his plate hostage so he couldn't even distract her with compliments on how good the food was. The longer she was pregnant, the sneakier she was getting.

"I got hit during gym." Jeremy said smoothly. It wasn't really a lie, even. Just an omission of some facts.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What were you playing?"

"Floor hockey."

Jenna frowned, like she wasn't convinced, but she handed his plate over anyway.

"You'd tell me if it was something else, right?" She asked, her tone light but her expression serious. "Because I was under the impression that we trust each other."

"Yeah. Of course." Jeremy grinned and dug into his dinner. "This is really good, by the way."

Jenna shrugged. "Rick threw it all in the Crockpot this morning before work. I just had to stir occasionally."

They ate in comfortable silence for a while. When Jeremy finished his second helping, he got up and stacked his plate in the dishwasher.

"So your birthday's coming up," Jenna pointed out. "Any ideas on what you'd like to do or what you want?"

"I haven't really thought about it." Jeremy admitted truthfully.

"If you wanted to have a party, Rick and I could make ourselves scarce. We've been meaning to drive up to the lake house anyway."

Jeremy reminding her he didn't have any friends, because it would probably make her start crying, since the baby hormones were making her especially crazy. Instead he opted for a diplomatic, "I'll think about it."

"All right. Let me know." Jenna glanced at the clock. "Are you heading over to Damon's?"

"Yeah. Is that okay?"

Jenna rolled her eyes, "The last time I checked, you don't usually ask permission, you just sneak out when you think I'm asleep."

Jeremy smiled sheepishly. "Do you want me to tell you I'm staying over, or should I sneak back into the house tomorrow morning?"

Jenna smiled wryly, "No sneaking required. I'm not naïve enough to think I can stop you from staying over anyway. At least I don't have to worry about anybody getting pregnant. One baby in this house is going to be plenty, I think." Jenna grinned.

* * *

"Jesus. Please tell me the other guy looks worse." Damon said as Jeremy walked into the living room of the boardinghouse.

"No other guy," Jeremy shrugged, dropping onto the couch. "I got hit in the face with a hockey stick during gym."

Damon sighed, "Let's try that again, only you tell me the truth this time."

"It's not a big deal."

"Starting a story that way automatically means that it _is _a big deal. It's like sticking 'no offense' at the beginning of a highly offensive statement."

"Damon." Jeremy frowned.

"Right. You were about to tell me the truth."

"It was just some asshole in the locker room."

Damon sat silently, waiting for the rest of the story.

"He was calling me a faggot and I was ignoring him, but then he got up in my face so I pushed him and he pushed back and it sort of escalated."

Damon frowned. "Who was it?"

"I'm not going to tell you, because you'll do something stupid. I already broke his nose."

"It wouldn't be stupid." Damon protested. "It would be _right_. Nobody gets to hurt what's mine and get away with it."

Jeremy curled his hand around the back of Damon's neck and pulled the angry, possessive vampire closer. Jeremy kissed him softly, before pulling away with a smile.

"I appreciate that, but I'd much rather you watch a movie with me and hold an ice pack over my eye than go teach that asshole a lesson."

"Fine." Damon grumbled. Then, just in case Jeremy believed his annoyance was real, he dropped a kiss on the top of Jeremy's head. "Love you. And I'm glad you broke his nose. He deserved it."


	32. Secret

_**A/N: A new chapter for you, my pretties. **_

_**Looking forward to your feedback.

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The boardinghouse was eerily quiet when Jeremy walked through the front door. He wasn't exactly supposed to be there, but he hadn't felt like going to his last period art class and he knew Mr. Murray wouldn't mind, so he'd left school early. He'd expected to find Damon reading in the living room, but the huge room was empty. Thinking Damon might be watching a movie, he climbed the stairs. The TV room was also empty, so he crossed the hall and opened Damon's bedroom door. The bed sheets were tangled and rumpled, which was weird, because Damon had this thing where he couldn't sleep in a bed that hadn't been made, so it was usually the first thing he did in the mornings.

He heard water running in the bathroom and grinned. There was a reason Damon's bathroom was probably the nicest room in the entire house—the vampire was a bit of a shower whore. Jeremy toed out of his shoes and pulled his t-shirt off over his head, intent on joining Damon.

He froze in the doorway. Damon was sitting on the floor of the shower, his arms wrapped around his legs, his forehead resting on his knees. He was folded in on himself, his shoulders shaking. Forgetting that he was still in his jeans, Jeremy pulled open the shower door and stepped inside. He slid down the wall and sat next to Damon.

"Day?" Jeremy's arms slipped around Damon's shoulders and the vampire flinched. He lifted his face from his knees.

"You're about seven hours early." Damon said flatly. His voice was hoarse, like he'd been crying or screaming or both. "You weren't supposed to see this."

It was only then that Jeremy realized the water falling on Damon and seeping through his jeans was actually cold, and he wondered how long Damon had been in here, to make the hot water run out. He reached up and twisted the taps, turning the water off.

"Damon." Jeremy curled his hand around Damon's jaw, turning Damon's face toward him. "What's going on?"

"You don't want to hear about it."

Jeremy recognized the expression on Damon's face immediately. It was the same one he saw on_ those_ nights. This was the thing he couldn't fix, no matter how hard he tried.

"Damon," Jeremy said again, softer this time, but no less insistent. "Please tell me."

"Why? Do you think you can make it better with love and kisses and blood and fucking?" Damon asked, his tone vicious.

"I've tried all of that already." Jeremy reminded him. "The only thing I haven't tried is talking."

"I don't want to talk."

Jeremy shrugged. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No."

They sat in silence, listening to the drain gurgle and the steady drip of water from the showerhead. Jeremy wasn't sure how much time passed before Damon relaxed, stretching his legs out and letting his head rest on Jeremy's shoulder.

"I never wanted this." Damon said quietly.

Jeremy waited, refusing to jump to conclusions about which 'this' Damon might mean.

"Katherine…what she was…it terrified me. _She_ terrified me. I was a selfish, rebellious kid, but I never wanted to be a monster." His voice cracked on the last word, and Jeremy tightened his hold on Damon's shoulders. "I miss being human so much."

Of all the things Jeremy was expecting, this was the least surprising option. Damon had hinted around the subject before, just never saying the exact words. He didn't know what to say. He didn't think there was anything _to _say. He pressed a kiss to the crown of Damon's head and wrapped his other arm around Damon's torso, pulling him closer.

"Can I do anything?" Jeremy asked.

"Don't give it up so easily."

"Being human?"

Damon nodded.

"We had a deal."

"We still do."

"You don't want me to be a vampire though."

"I don't want you to wake up a century from now or two centuries from now and feel the way I feel, or hate me as much as I hate my brother. Because eternity is a long fucking time and it's not me you've got to be able to live with for that long. It's yourself." Damon's voice was raw and Jeremy probably would have been angry if he weren't so worried. "It's up to you. I'm not going to back out of our deal."

"Jesus, Damon." Jeremy groaned, letting his head fall back to rest on the tiled shower wall. "I can wait, you know. It doesn't have to happen in a month and a half, if you feel so strongly about it. Being eighteen forever might kind of suck anyway."

"You'd have to ask Stefan. I wouldn't know."

"I'll think about it. Our deal, I mean. Not asking Stefan. He'll just try and convince me I shouldn't have anything to do with you in the first place."

"He is an overbearing, interfering asshole that way, isn't he?"

Jeremy chuckled and tipped Damon's face up to kiss him lightly. "Is there anything else I can do?"

Damon sighed, nuzzling his face against Jeremy's neck. "It's a total catch-22, but blood will make me feel better for a little while."

Jeremy stroked Damon's back, "Okay."

Jeremy let his head fall to the side and forced himself to relax as the sharp fangs sunk deep into his neck. Damon's hands cradled his head, holding him steady. Jeremy slipped his arm around Damon's waist, pulling the vampire closer, holding him tightly and hoping he could keep him from falling apart until they figured out a more permanent solution.


	33. Song

_**A/N: The lyrics in italics are from Bob Dylan's 'Make You Feel My Love'. It's been covered loads of times, but I still think the original is the best. **_

_**I set myself a 500-word challenge for this one and was successful. Yay for me! **_**:)**

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"This is seriously the most depressing playlist ever." Jeremy grumbled, halfway through 'A Whiter Shade of Pale', which was preceded by 'Love Hurts' and 'Tears in Heaven'.

"It's soothing." Damon murmured, throwing the stereo system remote down to the far end of the bed so Jeremy wouldn't be able to change the song.

"I thought I was allowed to pick the music from now on." Jeremy pointed out.

"No appreciation for the classics, honestly."

They bickered good-naturedly, albeit sleepily, through the rest of 'A Whiter Shade of Pale'.

There were a few silent seconds as the songs changed, and then a short piano intro that was familiar to them both.

_When the rain is blowing in your face_

"Okay." Jeremy said softly. "This is a good song."

_And the whole world is on your case_

"It's my favorite." Damon admitted.

_I could offer you a warm embrace_

_ To make you feel my love_

"My mom used to sing it all the time. She called him a poet, instead of a musician."

"Seems accurate." Damon smirked.

_When evening shadows and the stars appear_

_And there is no one there to dry your tears_

_ I could hold you for a million years_

_ To make you feel my love._

Jeremy snuggled closer to Damon, nuzzling his face against the vampire's neck, feeling the vibrations in Damon's throat as the vampire began to hum along.

_I know you haven't made your mind up yet_

_ But I would never do you wrong_

_ I've known it from the moment that we met_

_ No doubt in my mind where you belong_

Damon's fingers traced circular patterns on Jeremy's bare skin, and he pressed a kiss to the top of Jeremy's head, Jeremy's damp hair tickling his nose. Jeremy mouthed his way down the side of Damon's neck.

_ I'd go hungry I'd go black and blue_

_ I'd go crawling down the avenue_

Jeremy trailed kisses across Damon's collarbones, sucking and nibbling, leaving marks on Damon's pale skin.

_ Go to the ends of the earth for you_

_ To make you feel my love_

Damon's hands roamed Jeremy's body freely, his palms ghosting across Jeremy's rib cage, his fingers curving around Jeremy's hipbones. Jeremy's tongue flicked into the hollow at the base of Damon's throat.

_The storms are raging on the rollin' sea_

_ And on the highway of regret_

They both hesitated for a moment; Jeremy lifted his face, his brown eyes meeting Damon's blue ones. Damon curved his hand around Jeremy's cheek, his thumb brushing across Jeremy's cheekbone, before he lowered his head, their mouths meeting in a slow, heated kiss.

_ The winds of change are blowing wild and free_

_ You ain't seen nothing like me yet_

From there it was tongues and teeth and the whisper of skin-on-skin, both of them wanting and needing and clinging.

_ I could make you happy, make your dreams come true_

_ Know there's nothing that I wouldn't do_

_ Go to the ends of the earth for you_

_ To make you feel my love._


	34. Dance

_**A/N: Today's prompt comes from **_**thursdaynext. **_**I thought it was a good way to follow up 'Song'**_**. :)**

_**Shameless fluff ahead…

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"I can't believe you convinced me to do this." Damon said, although his mouth was turned up in the corners so Jeremy knew he wasn't as annoyed as he pretended to be.

Jeremy rolled his shoulders uncomfortably in his tuxedo. "It wasn't my idea. You try reasoning with a hormonal pregnant woman. She started crying and saying she was going to be a horrible mother."

"How is that even remotely related to us going to _prom_?" Damon asked.

"It isn't, but she was crying Damon. What was I supposed to do?"

"Tell her you didn't want to go." Damon suggested, like it was _easy_ watching a pregnant woman's heart break over her only nephew being a total loser.

"It could be worse." Jeremy reminded him. "I could be here with Caroline. She was practically begging me to bring her."

"Ugh. Why would you bring Vampire Barbie?"

"That's the point, Day. I wouldn't."

Damon looked a little bit smug at that, and Jeremy rolled his eyes.

They found their table with a group of people from Jeremy's art class. They weren't friends exactly, but none of the other art kids actively disliked him as much as the rest of the student body. After eating rubbery chicken and wilted vegetables (which Jeremy could easily have gotten at home on one of the nights Jenna cooked) and watching as all the couples got steadily schmoopier as the night went on, Jeremy was ready to make an escape. They'd shown up, had their awkward photo taken, spiked the punch bowl, eaten gross food and been forced to watch nearly every couple at their table make out with each other.

"Do you want to bail?" Jeremy asked hopefully.

Damon arched an eyebrow. "After all the effort it took to get here, you want to cut out early?"

"Are you honestly having a good time?"

Damon shrugged, "I've had worse nights."

"Wow. What a ringing endorsement." Jeremy deadpanned.

Damon grinned and leaned closer to kiss Jeremy. Before he could, someone kicked the back of Jeremy's chair. Jeremy turned around, scowling.

"Cocksuckers," John Anderson muttered.

"Really original, Anderson. Like I haven't heard that one before." Jeremy said, refusing to rise to the bait. Damon half-rose out of his chair, but Jeremy grabbed his arm. "Don't, Day. He's not worth it."

"That the asshole whose nose you broke?" Damon asked, his eyes still on Anderson's back as the bully walked back to his own table.

"Not telling."

"C'mon, babe," Damon wheedled. "I won't hurt him…much. I'll just let him know exactly who he's fucking with."

Jeremy snorted, "Not a chance."

Whatever Damon was going to say next was cut off by the music coming on rather abruptly. All of Jeremy's classmates flooded the dance floor.

"You want to?" Damon grinned.

"Are you kidding? I hate dancing."

"You danced with Bonnie last year."

"Because Elena made me."

"I could make you," Damon smirked evilly. His fingers brushed across Jeremy's wrist. "You aren't wearing vervain."

"You wouldn't dare."

Damon shrugged. "You're right. I wouldn't. But I'd make it worth your while."

"Honestly, Day, I just want to leave."

Damon frowned, but he pushed his chair back and reached for Jeremy's hand. He pulled his boyfriend to his feet and led him through the maze of tables and outside into the cool spring night.

They walked to the car quietly and Jeremy didn't say anything for the whole drive back to the boardinghouse. Damon parked the Camaro and followed Jeremy into the house, watching apprehensively as the teenager poured himself a drink and downed it quickly.

"Jer," Damon asked cautiously, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Babe." Damon said, his tone skeptical.

"It doesn't matter, Damon."

Damon shrugged out of his jacket draping it across the back of the couch, waiting for Jeremy to say more. He knew that he _would_, it was just a matter of patience. Damon fixed his own drink and sat next to Jeremy.

"It's just…we don't _need_ that. We're different. Better. Prom is for the people who want to spend the rest of their lives remembering how great high school was. I hate that school and all those people, so why the fuck would I want to spend a whole night with them when I'd rather be with you? I should have said it to Jenna, but she was crying and I've put her through enough shit, with the drugs and the lies and nearly failing out."

Damon wrapped his arm around Jeremy's shoulders. "I wish you'd told me that sooner. We could have come up with an excuse not to go."

Jeremy shrugged. "I'm just tired of people judging me. I mean, who gives a fuck if I don't want to go to college or I like art better than sports or I want to dance with my boyfriend? It's not anybody's business."

Damon smirked. "So you did want to dance?"

"It was just a hypothetical example." Jeremy insisted. Damon stood up, grabbing Jeremy's hands and pulling him to his feet.

"C'mere," Damon said.

Jeremy resisted for a moment, before letting Damon pull him close, Damon's arm slipping around his waist and their fingers lacing together.

"This is weird without music," Jeremy smirked.

"Shut up," Damon rolled his eyes, but let go of Jeremy to go fiddle with the iPod dock in the corner. "Better?" he asked, after finding a song.

Jeremy grinned, "I dunno. Now I feel like we belong in a cheesy romantic comedy."

"Stop being such a pain in the ass," Damon said, pulling Jeremy towards him again.

The fronts of their thighs brushed together as they revolved slowly on the spot, and Jeremy felt himself relaxing, letting go of the irritation and the frustration he felt whenever he was forced to interact with his peers. He rested his forehead against Damon's, his eyes closed, just listening to their favorite song and Damon's steady breathing.

"Love you." Jeremy said quietly.

"I know. I'm awesome."

Jeremy laughed, and pulled Damon closer. "Thank you. This is nice."

"Wow, what a ringing endorsement," Damon teased and they both laughed.


	35. Chaos

_**A/N: Today's prompt comes from **_**XxtogetherforneverxX.

* * *

**

Damon was thumbing through _Gone with the Wind_, reading his favorite parts and skipping Scarlett's more irritating moments when his phone vibrated next to him on the couch. He glanced at the screen and was surprised to see it was the Gilberts' home number.

"Did you lose your charger again, babe?" Damon grinned.

"Damon, it's Jenna."

Her voice was slightly hysterical, and Damon stood up, letting the book slide out of his lap.

"Jenna? What's wrong?"

"I need you to drive me to the hospital. Rick is in Richmond visiting his parents."

Damon figured it was the baby. A couple weeks early, but apparently that wasn't too weird—not that he would know from personal experience. He was halfway to the door when he realized she hadn't mentioned Jeremy, who was supposed to be home, studying for his Calculus exam.

"Jenna. Where's Jeremy?" He struggled into his jacket, trapping the phone between his shoulder and his ear, and grabbed his keys off the hook.

Jenna made a strange, gasping, hiccupping sort of noise and something like panic settled in Damon's stomach.

"There was an accident," she whimpered. If he weren't a vampire, he probably wouldn't have been able to hear her. "He was just going to pick up some ice cream."

"I'll be there in five minutes." Damon said. He didn't mean to hang up on her, but he shoved her phone in his jacket pocket without even thinking as he ran out to the car. For once, he was actually grateful for Stefan. His brother could be a pain in the ass, but he knew his way around an engine, which meant the Camaro remained in excellent condition, despite how little Damon actually drove it.

He all but floored it the entire way from the boardinghouse to the Gilberts'. He turned into the driveway to find Jenna pacing on the porch. She waddled down the stairs towards him, and he leaned across the passenger seat to open the door for her. She lowered herself into the car slowly, and Damon sort of regretted not getting out to help her.

She looked over at him, her face tearstained and her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

Damon shifted into reverse and backed out of the driveway without saying anything. He felt like there was a weight pressing down on his chest, getting heavier the closer they got to the hospital.

"What happened?" He asked, unable to keep it in any longer.

"I don't know." Jenna whispered. "He was taking a break from studying and we were going to watch an episode of True Blood and we were out of Chunky Monkey. He was only supposed to be gone ten minutes." Jenna twisted her hands in her lap and Damon couldn't help reaching over and grabbing one of them, squeezing tightly. She squeezed back, sending him a grateful look.

The ER waiting room was empty when they arrived, and they both walked straight up to the receptionist's desk.

"I got a phone call," Jenna said, her voice wavering. "My nephew. Jeremy Gilbert."

The receptionist typed something into her computer, her acrylic nails clacking on the keyboard. "Why don't you both have a seat?" She suggested, "He's in surgery right now."

"Surgery? Can't you tell us what happened?" Damon demanded.

"I'm afraid that's all I know."

Jenna sighed and pulled him back over to the uncomfortable chairs. They sat silently, minutes or hours crawling by.

"You should get some rest," Damon said. His voice was hoarse and his throat felt scratchy, so maybe it had been hours. "This can't be good for you or the baby."

Jenna glared at him. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I know. I just think you should sleep. I'll wake you up if anything happens."

"Damon, I'm the size of a whale. I'm never going to get comfortable in this chair anyway."

Damon sighed and draped his arm across her shoulders. "Just try, okay, Jenna? The last thing we need is for something to happen to you too."

She shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable, before finally giving in and leaning her body against him, using his shoulder as a pillow.

Despite telling her he'd stay awake, he manage to snatch ten minutes of sleep here and there, only to jerk awake abruptly, hoping to find it was all a bad dream.

All he was doing was sitting, with Jenna drooling on his shoulder and the receptionist regarding him suspiciously, but he could feel things starting to spin out of control. It felt like there was an elephant on his chest and a fist holding tight to his heart. At some point during the night, he smelled blood and seconds later the EMTs came running into the hospital with a gurney, it's wheels squeaking on the linoleum floor.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out. Rick.

"Yeah?"

"What the hell is going on? Nobody's here and nobody's answering their phones." The vampire hunter barked into the phone.

"We're at the hospital." Damon said hollowly.

"Is it the baby? Jenna? Why didn't anyone _call_ me?"

"It's Jeremy."

"Jesus. I'm on my way."

Damon hung up. He glanced down at the screen on his phone and saw that it was two in the morning, which meant they'd been sitting here for almost seven hours with no news. Damon was certain that in this situation no news must mean bad news.

"What's going on?" Jenna murmured, lifting her head of Damon's shoulder and stretching her arms over her head.

"Rick's on his way. He freaked when he got home and there was nobody there."

Jenna slapped a hand to her forehead, "I meant to call him."

"No sense worrying about it now."

"What time is it?"

"Little after two. Still no news."

Jenna buried her face in her hands.

As if on cue, an exhausted looking doctor came through the swinging doors into the waiting area.

"Are you Jeremy Gilbert's family?" He asked.

"Yes," Damon and Jenna said simultaneously.

The doctor sat in one of the seats opposite them.

"What happened? What's going on? Is he going to be okay?" Jenna asked quickly.

The doctor had one of those calming, soothing voices, but Damon refused to be lulled into a false sense of security. "Jeremy was involved in a car accident. The police were able to gather that a pickup truck ran a red light while he was driving through an intersection."

Damon inhaled sharply, the bleachy hospital smell burning his nose.

"Is he going to be okay?" Jenna repeated.

"He had a lot of internal damage and several broken bones. He's been in surgery to stop the internal bleeding. He's stable now, but..." The doctor hesitated and Damon froze.

"But what?" Damon demanded.

"He hasn't regained consciousness. We believe he suffered a serious head trauma during the accident. We've done an EEG to determine the level of brain activity."

"And?"

"There is still involuntary brain activity—he's breathing on his own, which is a good sign—but the level of higher brain activity is almost nonexistent."

"I don't understand. Is he going to wake up?" Jenna asked, her hand clutching Damon's tightly enough that it probably would have hurt if he were human.

"I'm afraid I don't know. He's young and healthy—

Damon resisted rolling his eyes at that. Anyone who spent almost seven hours in surgery with severe internal damage and head trauma could hardly be considered healthy.

"—so he might have a better chance than most, but…" The doctor hesitated again, his expression growing uncomfortable, "he might not."

Damon shuddered as his world tilted onto its side and slipped into chaos.


	36. Retrospect

_**A/N: **__**Thanks to **_**ayumi9273 **_**for the prompt.**_

**_Here we go again..._**

_**

* * *

**_

"Damon, it's four in the morning. This better be good." Stefan's voice was groggy and irritated.

"Jeremy's in the hospital."

"What?"

"He's in a coma."

"Is he going to wake up?"

Damon felt like throwing his phone across the room. "Jesus, Stefan, I don't know. I don't know. Just…come back. Please."

"Okay. Okay. I'll wake Elena up and we'll be on the road in half an hour. Just…hang in there, okay?"

Damon didn't know what to say to that, so he hung up the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. He paced the hallway outside of Jeremy's room, reluctant to go in and have his worst fears confirmed. He could hear Rick murmuring soothing things to Jenna, mostly nonsense stuff that wasn't making anyone feel any better.

"Damon? Did you get a hold of them?" Jenna asked. Damon was forced to stop pacing. He froze in the doorway.

"Yeah." He said, unable to take his eyes off of Jeremy. His left arm was in a cast, and one of his legs, and his face was cut and bruised and there were tubes and machines and Damon could hear Jeremy's heart thudding (too slowly) in time with the beeping heart monitor and he felt like he couldn't catch his breath. He leaned heavily against the doorframe, and forced himself to look at Jenna. "They're on their way. They should be here in a couple hours."

"Damon? Are you all right?" Rick asked cautiously.

Damon wanted to snap. Of course he wasn't all right. How could he possibly be all right?

"I'm fine." He said flatly. "I need some air." He pushed off the doorframe and strode back down the hallway, towards the waiting room. He needed to _do_ something. He couldn't keep pacing hallways and standing in doorways and sitting and waiting for Jeremy to wake up (if he woke up). He just felt trapped and useless.

He walked into the waiting room and up to the receptionist's desk again. He leaned in close, forcing her to make eye contact.

"Tell me what happened to the other driver in Jeremy Gilbert's accident."

She was painfully easy to compel. She turned towards the computer and typed something. "He had minor injuries and is now in police custody. He was drunk."

Damon swore under his breath. As far as he knew, Sheriff Forbes still had all the officers on the force mainlining vervain, just in case, so he really didn't have much chance of getting inside the police station and ripping that son of a bitch limb from limb. He could try, of course, but it was a good way to get himself staked.

He walked back down the hallway that smelled like bleach and floor cleaner and antiseptic, glaring at the nurse who looked like she was about to question his presence. When he reached Jeremy's room again, he found Rick and Jenna in the middle of a whispered argument. He didn't see the point in whispering—they _wanted_ Jeremy to wake up.

"Rick, I'm not going anywhere."

"This isn't good for you Jenna. All of the books say you should be getting as much rest as possible right now."

"He's right." Damon interrupted. "You should sleep."

"This doesn't involve you, Damon." Jenna snapped.

"Jenna, there's nothing we can do right now." Rick insisted. "Please, just come home for a couple hours. Damon will stay here, right?"

Damon nodded.

"Fine," Jenna said after a few moments. "But only for a few hours. And you have to call if anything happens."

"I will."

Damon watched them leave, before falling into the chair next to Jeremy's bed. There was a simple way to fix this. It would just take some blood, but Damon couldn't help thinking of the conversation he'd had with Jeremy barely two weeks ago.

_"I've been thinking," Jeremy said, his voice quiet in the dark room. "I'll wait. We can talk about turning me later. Maybe in a few years?"_

Damon had been so happy to agree then. Now, looking at it in retrospect, he was wishing he'd never brought up the subject at all and had just stuck with their original deal, because it would have made this so _easy_. Instead, Damon was forced to sit and wait and worry. He reached out, resting his hand on Jeremy's shoulder. He would have gone for his boyfriend's hand, except that Jeremy's arm was in a cast.

"You have to get better." Damon insisted, his voice rough. "Please."


	37. Think

_**A/N: Prompt comes from **_**Horrid Nightmares Haunt Me**_**. **_

_**I'd also like to add the general disclaimer that I'm not a doctor and most of my research has come from Wikipedia and WebMD, so if something is incorrect, let's call it poetic license, shall we?

* * *

**_

Damon woke with a start, a crick in his neck from sleeping hunched over the side of Jeremy's bed. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to find his brother standing over him, looking down with one of his usual concerned expressions. At least this time his concern was actually warranted.

Damon sat up, stretching his arms over his head and cracking his back, making Stefan wince. One glance at Jeremy told Damon nothing had changed.

"How long have you been here?" Damon asked.

"Only just arrived. Elena is at the house with Jenna and Rick. They're stalling Jenna so I could see the extent of the damage."

Damon scowled. He hated the way Stefan said it, so detached and impersonal, like it wasn't a piece of Damon's soul in that bed.

Stefan surveyed Jeremy critically, like he was running down a list in his head. Head injury, check; broken arm, check; bruised ribs, check—on and on and on. Then, without saying anything, Stefan raised his wrist to his mouth.

"What are you doing?" Damon snarled, getting to his feet quickly.

"Elena wanted me to do what I can, so I thought—

"No you didn't think at all." Damon could feel the anger and frustration that had been building over the past twelve hours getting even stronger.

"I'm not saying we should heal everything. That would draw too much attention. But if we gave him a little, at least so he's awake—

"So he can be in pain, you mean?" Damon crossed his arms over his chest, "So he can feel all of those injuries that you just catalogued? No. Blood is a last resort. _My _blood." Damon glared at the wrist still hovering near Stefan's mouth.

"Damon—

"_No_."

Stefan sighed, "Fine. _You_ can explain it to Elena."

Damon rolled his eyes. "Your girlfriend doesn't scare me."

* * *

Damon felt claustrophobic in Jeremy's room, squeezed between pregnant Jenna and fidgety Elena, while Stefan and Rick alternated between going out to get food and convincing the nurses that visiting hours shouldn't apply to them. (Stefan had done his fair share of compelling, and Damon was surprised his little brother had it in him.)

Everyone was waiting for progress as the days crawled by, but Jeremy wasn't getting better. He was still broken, he was still unconscious, and Damon was certain he couldn't be the only one who noticed the grim expressions on the doctors' faces.

Jenna, Rick and Elena left the hospital every night; sometimes Stefan went with them, and sometimes he stayed with Damon. Damon preferred his nights alone with Jeremy, when he could cling to whichever part of Jeremy looked least injured and…well, he wouldn't call it praying, exactly, because he couldn't remember the last time he'd believed in God… Hoped, maybe. He hoped for change, or at the very least patience so he could handle this without wanting to rip Elena's hair out or punch Stefan in the face or shove Rick down a flight of stairs.

Jenna was the only one who seemed to understand. Damon caught her looking at him frequently, with a soft, sympathetic expression on her face and in any other situation he would have hated it, but here it was reassuring. Here it meant that Jenna knew what the rest of them didn't: Jeremy was the only thing that mattered to Damon, the only thing keeping him from backsliding into his depressed, unstable self.

Tonight, though, Stefan had decided to stay, and Damon wouldn't admit out loud that he was grateful for his brother's presence, but when one of Jeremy's machines started beeping wildly and nurses came sprinting in and they were shoved out of the door and back into the uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room that seemed to be upholstered in sandpaper, Damon was glad not to be alone. Stefan's hand on his shoulder was comforting rather than overbearing.

"He'll be okay."

"You don't know that." Damon said, his voice hollow. His thoughts were traitorous, telling him he should have listened to Stefan, whispering that Jeremy was going to die, and Damon would do anything to not have to _think_ anymore.

"Maybe not, but one of us should be optimistic."

It was so _Stefan_ that Damon snorted, and Stefan grinned at him, and it was a brief moment of brotherly levity in the middle of what Damon had determined was his own personal hell.

It was a short-lived moment, because Dr. O'Donnell walked into the waiting room and headed in their direction. He was the same doctor from the first night, and he'd given up trying to determine the relationships of all of Jeremy's visitors. He just assumed they were family and turned a blind eye if they weren't.

"Is he all right?" Stefan asked, because Damon's tongue had glued itself to the roof of his mouth at the sight of the doctor. Over the past five days, Damon had gotten good at reading Dr. O'Donnell's expressions, and this one was the grimmest he'd seen yet.

"He hasn't made the sort of progress we would normally like to see in situations like this."

"What just happened in there?" Stefan inclined his head in the direction of Jeremy's room.

"His blood pressure dropped drastically, which is a concern since it was already quite low to begin with." Dr. O'Donnell hesitated for a moment. "He's having trouble breathing. We've hooked him up to a ventilator."

"So you're saying he's not getting better, he's actually getting worse." Damon's voice shook. "Is he going to die? Don't give me some bullshit hospital babble. Tell me the truth."

Dr. O'Donnell looked like that was the last thing he wanted to do, which was answer enough. "Probably. He's deteriorating rapidly." The doctor said quietly. "It might be wise to call the rest of your…family."

Stefan's hand gripped his shoulder tighter and it was no longer comforting. Damon shook it off and got to his feet, hurrying as far away from the waiting room as he could. He needed to be separate, to think, to breathe. He turned random corners and walked down hallways until he'd almost lost himself in the maze of the hallway. His legs gave out on him then, and he slid down the wall, sitting on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest. There was only one option left, as far as he was concerned, and it would mean doing to Jeremy exactly what he'd promised himself he wouldn't do.


	38. Risk

_**A/N: Same disclaimer from before as far as the medical stuff goes.**_

_**Also, if you hadn't realized it already, I'm evil…

* * *

**_

When Damon returned to Jeremy's room, Elena was sobbing into Stefan's chest and Jenna was sitting, staring straight ahead. For a terrifying moment he thought he was too late, before he heard the familiar beeps and the new noise, a steady, whispery hiss from the ventilator.

Stefan understood the determined expression on Damon's face immediately.

"Damon. No."

"It isn't your decision, Stefan."

"It isn't yours either."

"You're right. Legally, it's Jenna's. She's his guardian."

Jenna's eyes snapped towards them and Rick shook his head vehemently.

"Even so, it might not work," Stefan insisted. "I don't know of anybody who's been successful with someone as far gone as him. It's a big risk."

"What difference does it make?" Damon's voice was edging on hysteria. "If it doesn't work, he dies. Well, he's already fucking dying, so we should at least _try_ it."

"And if it does work, how is it any different than what I did to you?"

For a moment, it was enough make him falter. But he forced himself to remember that Stefan barely knew anything about Damon and Jeremy's relationship.

Damon scowled. "Because when he wakes up, I won't take his choice away. I'm giving him the option."

"Would somebody like to tell me what the _hell_ is going on?" Jenna snapped, making all four of them flinch.

Damon dragged over another chair and sat opposite Jenna. "I know you're not as out of the loop as everybody thinks." He said quietly. "You have to know that that Stefan and I are more than just average humans." Jenna's eyebrows came together in a small frown, but she didn't dispute this. "We don't have enough time for a full explanation, but I'll answer your questions if you let me fix him. I don't know if it will work, but you have to let me try. Please."

Jenna's eyes flicked back and forth between Jeremy and Damon.

"Jenna, please. You know that I wouldn't lie to you. Not about this." Damon could hear the desperation creeping into his voice. He didn't want to compel her, but he would if he had to. It would piss Stefan and Rick and Elena off, but when it came down to pleasing them or saving Jeremy, his decision was easy.

"If it works, he'll be like you?" She asked.

Damon nodded.

Jenna worried her bottom lip between her teeth for a few moments. After what had to be the most agonizing wait of Damon's life, Jenna finally said, "Try it."

Damon leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead, "Thank you."

"Just bring him back. Please."

Stefan crossed his arms over his chest, his expression resigned. "Have you thought about this at all? We can't exactly bring him with us. And the ventilator tube complicates things."

Damon shot Stefan a look, "Honestly, Stefan. Your lack of faith is a little insulting. Obviously I've thought about this. First of all, Rick, Jenna and Elena need to clear out. The fewer humans in here the better."

Elena looked ready to protest, but Stefan silenced her with a small shake of his head. Rick helped Jenna to her feet. The pregnant woman leaned over the side of Jeremy's bed and kissed his forehead. Elena did the same before Rick guided the two of them out of the room.

"Now what?" Stefan frowned.

"We call for back up." Damon asked, already pulling out his phone. Caroline answered on the second ring. "Barbie. Jeremy needs a favor."

* * *

Caroline arrived at the hospital with nine blood bags from Damon's cooler, the ring Bonnie had given Jeremy, and too many questions.

"Why didn't anyone _call_ me? He's one of my best friends and he's been here for a _week_ and nobody thought it might be a good idea to clue me in? And _why_ am I bringing blood bags to a _hospital_? I'm sure they've got extras lying around. And what happened? Is turning him going to work? He looks _seriously_ injured."

"If you don't shut up, I'm going to stake you." Damon said, feeling normal for the first time in days. Caroline snapped her mouth shut, her teeth clacking together. She handed him her purse, which was filled with the blood bags, and Damon pulled one out and tossed it to Stefan. "Drink up."

"No."

"If this works you two have twelve nurses, four doctors and one very rude receptionist to compel. Bunnies and squirrels aren't going to cut it anymore."

"And where will you be?"

Damon sighed, "I'll be getting Jeremy out of here."

"If this is for me, who are the other _eight_ for?"

"Jeremy. Obviously."

"Damon. Don't you think you're overcompensating just a little? Why give him eight when one will do?"

"I'm not taking any chances. And he's going to be thirsty enough to drain an entire human, so I may as well have that much blood here." Damon walked over to nurse's station in the corner of the room and started opening drawers, looking for a syringe.

"Why do you need that?" Caroline asked.

"He can't exactly drink my blood, can he? I'm going to have to inject it."

"You're going to need help drawing your own blood." Stefan said.

"Now you're getting with the program. Took you long enough. Who's going to do the honors?"

"I will. Stefan should start drinking anyway."

Stefan rolled his eyes, but brought the blood bag up to his mouth while Caroline helped Damon draw blood from his arm.

"What now?"

"Ring swap." Damon said. He leaned over Jeremy and slid his Gilbert ring off. Damon stuck the ring in his pocket, figuring it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to give it to Jenna. Caroline fished the ring from Bonnie out of her purse and passed it to Damon, who put it on Jeremy's finger.

Stefan finished off the blood bag with an undignified slurp before crossing the room to dispose of it in the biohazard waste bin. Damon couldn't resist rolling his eyes.

"Are you sure about this?" Stefan asked as Damon picked up the syringe filled with his blood and walked around the side of the bed to where Jeremy's IV was hooked up.

"You'd do the same thing if it were Elena." Damon said, before removing Jeremy's IV and injecting his blood into the same vein. For a moment, they all stood frozen. Then, with a calm he didn't feel, Damon unplugged the ventilator and the heart monitor. He removed the breathing tube, but Jeremy's chest was still rising and falling steadily. Damon placed his hands on either side of Jeremy's head and squeezed his eyes shut tightly. He twisted, and shuddered at the sound of Jeremy's neck snapping.


	39. Reward

_**A/N: Prompt comes from **_**Moriarty's Minion**_**.**_

_**I'd also like to wish **_**Vesuvious **_**a very happy twen-teenth birthday. Who says you have to stop being a teenager, anyway? =**_**D

* * *

**

There was a bright light just beyond his eyelids, and noises reaching his ears, garbled and distorted, like he was underwater. His heart was racing and he took a deep breath on instinct, trying to slow it down. Breathing felt almost foreign, and when he inhaled could actually _taste_ bleach and antiseptic, plus something familiar and comforting that he couldn't quite describe.

"Jer?"

The sounds were becoming less confused, and Jeremy forced his heavy eyelids open. The fluorescent light was almost blinding, and he squinted against it. His eyes were out of focus, and he blinked a few times. When his eyes came into focus, he connected the sterile white room to the bleachy smell and determined he was in the hospital. Damon was sitting on the edge of his bed, leaning close, his face covered in several days' worth of stubble. There were dark smudges under his bloodshot eyes, like he hadn't slept in days.

"Day?" His voice felt hoarse, and his mouth tasted like something had died in it. "You look like shit."

Damon laughed a little bit hysterically. "I love you too, babe."

"What happened?" Jeremy asked, frowning, trying to piece together the random flashes of images in his memory. "I feel…" he searched for the right word, "weird."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Damon asked, moving closer to Jeremy.

Jeremy shut his eyes, trying to concentrate. His brain kept sending him down useless tangents, like the scratchy feel of the starched hospital sheets against his skin and the weight of the cast on his arm. Well, maybe the cast wasn't such a strange tangent after all. "I went to get ice cream for Jenna." Jeremy said, remembering the headlights that had filled Jenna's Mini Cooper, right before the crash. "That truck…it hit me."

Damon nodded.

"How long have I been out?"

"A week."

"Seriously?"

Damon nodded again. "There's more." He looked down at his hands, unable to meet Jeremy's eyes for some reason. "You were really hurt. Lots of broken bones and internal damage and I think there was something seriously wrong with your brain that the doctors weren't telling us. You weren't getting better. You started to get worse and they had to hook you up to a ventilator and they told us you were going to die."

"I'm not dead." Jeremy pointed out.

"Technically you're undead."

Jeremy's eyes widened in surprise. "You did it?"

"I had to." Damon said, finally looking at Jeremy again. "You still have a choice, though. You don't have to go through with it."

"Damon, don't be an idiot." Jeremy said. "I want to."

Damon grabbed a black purse from one of the chairs and dropped it next to Jeremy on the bed. He passed him one of the blood bags. Jeremy took it with his hand that wasn't trapped in a cast.

"You should have some too." Jeremy said. "You look—

"Like shit. So you've said. I'll be fine."

"Day, c'mon. I'm not going to need all of it." Jeremy said, before realizing he didn't know if that was actually the truth. "Am I?"

"No, probably not."

"All right. Then take some." Without waiting for Damon, Jeremy brought the bag up to his mouth. The tube at the top made a pretty effective straw. The first few sips went down okay, but then he actually _thought_ about the fact that he was drinking somebody's blood and he gagged.

"You okay?" Damon asked, his eyes searching Jeremy's face.

"It's just…odd." Jeremy said. "It good, but if I think about it…"

"That will go away." Damon said. Jeremy nodded and raised the bag to his mouth again. He forced himself not to think about it and drained four bags quickly. He felt full and sloshy and relaxed.

"What now?" Jeremy asked.

"We get you out of here." Damon grinned, and Jeremy couldn't help grinning back.

"How?"

"Stefan and Caroline are off compelling nurses and doctors into believing that your injuries weren't that serious after all and one of them should be back any minute to tell us you've been discharged and we'll just wheel you out of here. We'll take the casts off later."

"What about clothes?" Jeremy frowned.

Damon smirked, and dug into Caroline's bag, pulling out a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt.

As if on cue, Stefan stepped into the room. "We're all clear. Jenna is filling out the paperwork and Caroline's getting a wheelchair. Also, Elena's right behind me."

"Jesus, Stefan." Damon said.

Before Jeremy could ask why that was such a bad thing, Elena burst into the room and ran towards him, flinging her arms around him. The sound of her heart beating was all Jeremy could hear, and he felt the veins around his eyes begin to throb and an aching in his mouth as his fangs descended. He shoved Elena away, Stefan catching her before she could fall. Damon cradled Jeremy's face in his hands, his forehead resting against Jeremy's.

"Just breathe," Damon said quietly. "It's all right."

Jeremy focused, inhaling and exhaling slowly, until he felt the veins relaxing and the fangs sliding back up. It was strange and frightening and he looked back at Elena, who was standing next to Stefan, looking guilty.

"Sorry, Elena." He said.

She shook her head. "My fault. I was so happy you're okay, I forgot…"

"Let's just get you home." Damon suggested.

"Home…sounds good." Jeremy nodded.

* * *

After the incident with Elena, they agreed it was better for Jeremy to stay at the boardinghouse with Damon until he felt less out of control. Freed from his casts and nursing another blood bag, Jeremy couldn't help feeling just a little bit surreal. He was a _vampire_, only a few weeks after promising Damon that it didn't need to happen right away.

"Are you all right?" Damon asked.

Jeremy nodded. "Just…processing."

"Anything I can do?" Damon's expression was vaguely apprehensive, like he was afraid Jeremy had regrets.

"Honestly, I just want to take a shower. All I can smell is hospital."

Damon got to his feet and offered his hand to Jeremy, pulling him to his feet. They walked upstairs together, still holding hands, and Damon spun the taps on the shower to the perfect temperature before turning back to Jeremy. He pulled Jeremy's t-shirt off and pushed his shorts down his legs. Jeremy reached out and grabbed the hem of Damon's shirt, and Damon scrambled out of it, shucking off his jeans and leaving all the clothes on the floor.

Damon pulled Jeremy into the shower, sliding his arms around Jeremy's waist under the hot spray and just clinging to him, his face buried in the crook of Jeremy's neck.

Jeremy felt Damon's body shaking, and wrapped his arms tighter around Damon's torso.

"Please don't scare me like that again, Jer," Damon said, his voice muffled and almost childlike.

"Won't," Jeremy said, dropping his forehead to rest on Damon's shoulder.

They stayed like that for a long time, clinging and comforting and murmuring promises.


	40. Family

_**A/N: Sorry for the delay. I had a major case of writer's block.**_

_**Can't wait to see what you all think about this chapter.

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**_

Jenna sat on the porch swing, her hands curled around a mug of coffee—decaf, you're welcome very much unnamed, unborn infant—and listening to the creak of the swing's chain links. She was waiting for the rumbling engine of Damon's Camaro, and the answers she had been promised.

She'd been suspicious of Damon from the beginning, but told herself she was just being silly, and so she'd set her worries aside for Jeremy's sake, determined to accept him for whoever he was, and since he and Damon looked like they were going to turn out to be a packaged deal, she didn't have much choice. And now she was learning that she'd been right to be worried, that whatever Damon _was_, he wasn't human, and now neither was Jeremy. This was one of those times she longed for the days when she was cool, fun, young Aunt Jenna, who breezed into town occasionally to babysit and let Elena and Jeremy watch R-rated movies, eat ice cream for dinner and stay up past their bedtime.

Elena and Stefan had been tiptoeing around her all day, knowing they were in as much trouble as Damon and Jeremy, but still unaware of _how_ much trouble that actually was. Rick had been wearing his apologetic, guilty expression too, which meant that he was also involved.

Jenna wanted to be angry. She wanted to yell and break things and demand to know why her entire family had decided it was a good idea to lie to her for two years. But first she needed to know that Jeremy was okay, needed to know _what_ he was, and she needed to pee because Baby Saltzman seemed to take great delight in kicking her bladder every ten minutes or so.

She was about to start the process of heaving herself off the swing when she heard the Camaro turn onto the street. She waited as Damon parked in the driveway behind Stefan's Porsche (and Jenna wondered, not for the first time, why the Salvatores didn't own any _normal_ cars).

Jeremy and Damon walked up the front walk, Jeremy looking sheepish and Damon looking…nervous, which was a weird expression on him. Jenna was used to cocky, smug Damon.

They climbed the steps onto the porch, and Jenna held out her hands.

"You're going to help me up, we're going to go inside, I'm going to pee, and then we're going to talk. All of us."

Damon nodded, while Jeremy grabbed Jenna's hands and pulled her to her feet.

"Gonna pop any day now," he said, eyeing the baby bump that was starting to become the bane of Jenna's existence.

"God I hope so. Junior here is doing tap dances on my bladder."

Jenna walked through the door, calling to Stefan, Rick and Elena that the family meeting was starting in five minutes. Damon stepped over the threshold, but Jeremy stayed on the porch, trapped by his lack of invitation.

"Honestly, Jeremy," Jenna rolled her eyes, "Stop stalling and come inside."

When Jenna returned from the bathroom, she found Rick, Stefan, Elena, Damon and Jeremy sitting at the kitchen table. For a moment, it was nice seeing them all in one place, and then she remembered why they were all there.

She sat at the head of the table and was greeted by five faces bearing varying degrees of guilt.

"I want to know everything."

All of them exchanged glances.

"Where do we even start?" Stefan mused, more to himself than anyone else.

"How about you start with what you all _are_." Jenna's eyes narrowed.

"Vampires." Damon said bluntly. "Stefan, Jeremy and I are vampires."

"Vampires." Jenna repeated, feeling a little bit like laughing. "So, what, you guys have been around forever. Like Dracula?"

"Not forever." Stefan said. "Since the 1840s."

"We were turned during the vampire massacre that Jonathan Gilbert wrote about in his journals." Damon added.

"Jonathan Gilbert was crazy."

"He did get a little bit unhinged towards the end," Damon conceded, "But he was perfectly sane for most of his life. He was a pretty nice guy, actually, until you were a vampire, and then he wanted to kill you."

Jenna chose to ignore the second half of Damon's statement. "And that's what you did yesterday? You turned Jeremy?"

Jeremy nodded. "Yeah."

"And you've all known about this from the beginning?" Jenna glared at Elena and Rick.

"For a while it was just me." Elena said. "And then Rick showed up and Jeremy did that extra credit project about the town's history and was reading the Gilbert journals and hanging out with Anna—

"Anna was a vampire too, I'm guessing." Jenna said flatly. If she went into this with the assumption that everyone was a vampire, then she might be able to handle it.

"Yeah."

Jenna narrowed her eyes at her fiancé. "And how do _you_ fit into all of this?"

"Well, technically I used to be a vampire hunter."

"A vampire hunter."

"Yes."

"Well that's just perfect, isn't it?" Jenna couldn't quite keep the hysteria out of her voice and she felt frustrated tears welling in her eyes. "My fiancé is a vampire hunter. My niece and nephew have been dating vampires for years, and now Jeremy is a vampire too. And I'm pregnant. You're all letting me bring a child into this crazy, fucked up, supernatural world you've all been living in. And don't think that just because I'm crying now that you all are going to be off the hook." Jenna snapped, reaching blindly for the napkins and scrubbing at her face. "You've been lying to my face for years. _Years_!"

"We were trying to protect you." Rick ventured cautiously. "Associating with vampires…it usually isn't the brightest idea. It sort of throws you in the path of other supernatural things."

"There's _more_?" Jenna blew her nose into a napkin.

"Uh, yeah." Rick looked like he wished he hadn't brought it up. "For a while the town was overrun by vampires. Remember the night Mayor Lockwood died? Vampires. And then there was sort of a feud with the werewolves, but that calmed down once Tyler Lockwood took off. And then the Original vampires wanted to sacrifice Elena to break an Aztec curse and Bonnie's a witch and—

"Rick, I don't think this is helping." Elena said shrilly.

Jenna started to breathe deeply, because she was pretty sure hyperventilation was _not_ a good thing for her unborn spawn. "Let's backtrack. You three are vampires, which means that you're going to live forever?" The idea made her head spin.

"Yes." Damon said, "Unless someone kills us."

"How do you kill a vampire?"

"Decapitation, a wooden stake through the heart, or fire. Oh, and sunlight." Rick supplied

"But you guys walk around in daylight all the time."

Simultaneously, Stefan, Damon and Jeremy lifted their hands. They were all wearing rings.

"The rings protect us from the sun." Stefan explained. "To get one, you have to be friendly with a witch."

"Magic rings?" Jenna snorted, "Do you realize how stupid that sounds?"

Damon shrugged, "They might be stupid, but they work."

For a second, everyone was silent, and then Jenna went straight for the elephant in the room. "You drink human blood."

"Stefan doesn't." Elena said proudly, and both Jeremy and Damon rolled their eyes simultaneously, with such perfect timing they must have practiced. "He drinks animal blood."

"What about you guys?"

Jeremy shifted uncomfortably, "Uh, well, for awhile I was Damon's supplier."

"Damon also steals from blood banks rather than attack innocent people." Rick said, doing his best to put a positive spin on theft.

"I don't know if that's better or worse."

"Better." Jeremy said. "Having blood taken from you without your consent is painful."

"And when it's voluntary...?" Jenna asked, and she had her answer from the smirk on Damon's face and the way Jeremy's ears burned bright red in embarrassment. "Ah. Okay. We won't go there."

"You seem to be taking this well." Rick said, his expression naively hopeful.

"Are you kidding?" Jenna frowned. "I'm absolutely _livid_. You'll be sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future. And if Elena weren't going back to Duke tomorrow, I'd be locking her in her room for at least the next six months. And Jeremy's a vampire now, so punishing him is just totally moot, isn't it?" Jenna sighed, and crossed her arms over her chest. "New rule. We might be the world's most dysfunctional family, what with the fact that three of us are undead and most of us aren't even blood-related, but no matter how fucked up we are, we're still a family. And families support each other, which means that there will be no more lies in the Saltzman-Gilbert-Salvatore family. Do I make myself clear?"

All of them nodded.

"We're sorry for keeping you out of the loop for so long." Rick said, shamefaced.

"I'm sure you are. But we're going to have to save the apologies and the groveling for later. Junior has the worst timing in the world. The hospital is the absolute last place any of us wants to be right now, but someone is going to have to take me there because my water just broke."


	41. Same

_**A/N: Just a warning, mature content ahead. ;)

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**_

Jeremy hadn't thought it would _that _different. In fact, he forced himself to believe that he was fine and it wasn't totally weird and that things weren't different at all until he picked up his drink and was covered in shattered glass before he realized what even happened. He blinked away the alcohol burning his eyes and ignored Damon's amused chuckle.

"Doesn't know his own strength yet." Damon teased and Jeremy shot him an annoyed glare while he gathered the pieces of the tumbler and set them on the table. It wasn't his sudden Herculean strength or the fangs just erupting forth at a moment's notice or the ability to move so quickly that nobody could see him that was the most unnerving. It was the fact that now that _he_ was different, Damon seemed different too. His voice sounded strange to Jeremy's new and improved hearing, like it was coming in at a lower frequency. Instead of having to bury his face against Damon's neck to smell his scent, Jeremy could practically _taste_ it from across the room (and that really wasn't helping matters, because he loved how Damon smelled). Worst of all, Damon looked different. Better. Even more beautiful than before, if that was possible. Now that he was a vampire, it was obvious how substandard all his human senses had been.

"Jer," Damon said quietly, and Jeremy looked up to see concern on his face. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine." Jeremy protested.

"You aren't. Maybe I should have listened to Stefan." Damon looked stricken, having to admit this.

Jeremy scowled. "No. You shouldn't. I can't believe he said those things to you."

Damon smirked a little bit. "It's a moot point. I got my way in the end, didn't I?" His expression softened and he crossed the room, sitting on the couch next to Jeremy. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Everything is different." Jeremy whispered. "You don't even _look_ like you anymore."

"I'm still the same." Damon promised. "If things had actually gone according to plan, I would have had time to warn you about all this."

"And by 'this' you mean the fact that I can hear the cars all the way out on the highway and how I can still smell the hospital even though I've been home for three days and how I could run from here to Richmond and not get tired?"

"Yeah. All that." Damon reached up, brushing his hand across Jeremy's face and Jeremy shivered because he felt it like every nerve ending in his body was reacting. "Do you wish I hadn't done it?" Damon asked, his eyes—even bluer than Jeremy had ever been able to notice—searching Jeremy's face.

"Don't be stupid," Jeremy said, grinning slightly because that was usually Damon's line.

Damon grinned back, "Just checking."

Jeremy curled his hand around the back of Damon's neck and pulled the other vampire forward, their lips meeting in a hungry kiss. Damon's tongue slid slowly against Jeremy's and Jeremy wrapped his arms around Damon's waist, pulling him into his lap.

Damon's body pressed against his, and the taste of his tongue and the feel of his lips and his hands_—this _was finally the same.

"Day," Jeremy murmured against Damon's lips. The other vampire took it for exactly what it was: an invitation. He surged forward for a kiss that was hard and hungry and demanding.

Damon pulled away with a mischievous smirk on his face, "Race you upstairs."

Jeremy was on his feet quickly, running fast enough to become a blur across the room and up the stairs. He stopped abruptly just inside the threshold of Damon's room, feeling sort of breathless from the sudden stop. Damon was reclining on the bed, his arms folded behind his head.

"I win." He smirked at Jeremy.

Jeremy only grinned, before jumping onto the bed, landing next to Damon.

"Look at you, learning all _kinds _of new tricks." Damon grinned.

Jeremy flung a leg over Damon's waist, straddling his boyfriend.

"I think _I_ win." Jeremy smirked. "Considering I've got you right where I want you."

"Is that so?" Damon arched an eyebrow, before flipping quickly, pinning Jeremy beneath him. "How about now?"

They wrestled playfully back and forth across Damon's enormous bed, getting tangled in the fluffy duvet before Jeremy surrendered, rolling onto his back. He hauled Damon towards him by the front of his sweater and captured Damon's lips in a lazy kiss. Damon slid his hands up underneath Jeremy's t-shirt, his hands skimming across Jeremy's warm skin, light and teasing. Jeremy shivered and pushed Damon away so he could scramble out of his shirt. Damon smirked and followed suit, tossing his sweater over the edge of the bed.

Damon left a trail of open-mouthed kisses down the middle of Jeremy's chest, and Jeremy shivered again. This maybe wasn't the same after all. It was more intense than he remembered; he felt the brush of Damon's lips and the slide of his tongue like every nerve ending in his body was focused wherever Damon's mouth was.

Damon unbuttoned Jeremy's jeans and Jeremy lifted his hips so Damon could slide both his jeans and his boxers down his legs. He kicked free of them, not caring where they landed. Damon's lips travelled lower and Jeremy shivered as Damon's teeth grazed his hipbone. He glanced up at Jeremy with what could only be described as a truly evil grin before taking Jeremy's hard cock into his mouth. Jeremy let out a strangled gasp, and couldn't help thrusting farther into the wet heat of Damon's mouth. Damon wrapped his hands around Jeremy's hips, holding him in place. One of Jeremy's hands tangled into Damon's hair while the other vampire did absolutely sinful things with his tongue. All Jeremy could focus on was warm wet suction and it took him far too long to understand what Damon wanted when he stuck his fingers in Jeremy's mouth. Catching on, Jeremy curled his hand around Damon's wrist and sucked on his fingers. Damon groaned around Jeremy's dick, and Jeremy's hips bucked again. Damon didn't try to stop him this time.

If Jeremy were remotely coherent, he would have marveled at Damon's multitasking abilities (and lack of gag reflex), working Jeremy's cock with his mouth while his spit-slick fingers were inside Jeremy, opening him up. Jeremy writhed beneath Damon, torn between rocking down on Damon's fingers and thrusting up into his mouth.

"_Damon_." Jeremy whined, not sure if it was a warning to stop or a plea for more. Damon sat up, Jeremy's cock sliding out of his mouth with a truly obscene pop and smirked. Jeremy whimpered.

He leaned forward, dragging his teeth up the side of Jeremy's neck, "Tell me what you want, Jer." He hissed.

Jeremy pulled Damon into a rough kiss, his tongue pushing past Damon's teeth and his hand still fisted tightly in Damon's hair. "Fuck me," Jeremy growled against Damon's lips.

Damon laughed, sliding away from Jeremy. He rolled off the bed and stepped out of his jeans. Jeremy's mouth went dry with the knowledge that Damon had been going commando this entire time and Damon grinned like he knew exactly what Jeremy was thinking. Damon rummaged in the drawer of his bedside table for lube, and Jeremy's eyes tracked his movements as he slicked his cock and rejoined Jeremy on the bed.

He settled between Jeremy's legs, his hands and his lips skimming across Jeremy's skin, teasing.

"Damon," Jeremy hissed, hooking one of his legs around Damon's waist.

Damon smirked, lining himself up and filling Jeremy in one smooth thrust. Jeremy groaned, his hands grabbing for fistfuls of the soft sheets. Damon stayed still for a moment, braced on his arms and looking down at Jeremy.

"Stop being such a tease," Jeremy complained. Damon kissed him, softly this time, before sliding out and thrusting back in slowly, setting a languid pace that had Jeremy keening in frustration. Jeremy wrapped his legs around Damon's waist, pulling the other vampire deeper.

"Please." Jeremy said, his voice rough.

Damon smiled widely, "Only because you asked so nicely." He changed the angle and slammed his hips forward, hitting Jeremy's prostate and making the other vampire howl. Jeremy clung tightly to Damon, their pace increasing and their sweat-slick bodies sliding against each other.

Jeremy was lost in how much more intense this was. All that mattered was Damon and the way they fit perfectly against each other. Jeremy began to tremble, Damon sending him over the edge. His fangs descended at the same time, and Jeremy was suddenly very aware of the fluttering pulse point in Damon's neck. He couldn't help sinking his teeth into Damon's soft skin experimentally. Damon groaned as he came quickly, thanks to the combination of Jeremy's body clenched tightly around him and the fangs sinking into his neck. He collapsed bonelessly on top of Jeremy, nuzzling his face in the crook of Jeremy's neck.

"You taste funny." Jeremy murmured.

"Because I'm a vampire, babe."

"Does that mean I don't taste the same anymore?" Jeremy asked, stroking his fingers down the ridge of Damon's spine. Damon nodded. "Things really are different."

"Yeah, they are." Damon agreed. "You okay with that?"

"I will be," Jeremy said, before smirking and rolling to pin Damon beneath him. "Besides, we're equals now, which definitely has its perks."


	42. Home

_**A/N: 500 words of shameless fluff. **_**:D**

_**Thanks to **_**TEARDR0P **_**for the prompt**_**.

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**

From what Damon could see, Henry Robert Saltzman was nothing more than a fairly inanimate bundle swaddled in a blue blanket and wearing a blue hat over his tiny head. He didn't see what the big deal was. When he said as much, Elena shot him an annoyed look.

"Don't be stupid Damon. He's lovely."

"Didn't you say goodbye an hour ago?" Damon shot back. "Doesn't that overpriced university of yours care that you've missed two weeks of classes?"

Elena rolled her eyes and returned to cooing at the baby in her arms. Jeremy sat next to Damon, slipping an arm around his waist and pressing a kiss to the side of his neck.

"Play nice, everybody." Jeremy grinned. "You're setting a bad example for baby Hank."

"Don't call him Hank," Jenna protested. "It makes him sound so old."

"Because Henry is such a youthful name." Rick grinned.

"He looks like a Hank," Elena said, "Our little old man Hank."

"Elena, we probably should get going." Stefan reminded her, letting his hand rest on her shoulder. She pouted, but passed the baby back to Jenna.

"Send me lots of pictures," she insisted. "I'll be home in a couple weeks, after I finish my exams."

"Drive safe," Rick said, walking Elena and Stefan to the door.

The Porsche's engine startled Henry awake, and he blinked up at them with eyes so blue they were almost purple.

"Are you sure you don't want to hold him, Jer?" Jenna asked. She had the exhausted but somehow still ecstatic glow of a new mother and Damon really didn't understand how she could look so happy about a baby that did nothing but keep her awake all night.

"It's probably safer if I don't." Jeremy said, his expression unreadable. Then, a grin spread across his face, "But I'll bet Damon would _love_ to hold Hank."

"No, I'm fine." Damon said quickly, eyeing the baby in Jenna's arms anxiously.

"Do you have something against my son, Damon?" Jenna's eyes narrowed suspiciously, and Damon could see Rick shooting him a warning look behind Jenna's back.

"No. Of course not. Jeremy's right. He, er, looks cuddly."

Jeremy snorted and Damon shot him a _you are so going to pay for this later_ glare, before Jenna handed him the baby gently.

"Support his head in the crook of your—yeah, like that."

Henry really did look like a Hank, with his sort of squashed up baby face and his little hat. He waved one of his tiny fists in Damon's direction and sort of gurgled at him. And, okay, so maybe Hank actually was sort of cuddly, warm like a tiny human space heater and soft and fragile, like he'd need to be protected from the world for a long time. Damon felt a surge of unfamiliar, completely unbidden affection and he could tell from the way Jeremy was smirking at him that he'd expected this all along.

"Don't start with me, Gilbert." Damon scowled and Henry gurgled again.


	43. Worthwhile

_**A/N: I've got an essay due Monday, so don't expect any new chapters until Monday night at the earliest.**_

_**Looking forward to your thoughts about this one**_**.

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**

Damon woke abruptly in the middle of the night, his arms reaching for Jeremy and coming up empty, which was strange because Jeremy slept like a boa constrictor, wrapping his whole body around Damon and holding tightly. Damon slid out of bed, moving silently across his dark room and out into the hallway.

He froze at the top of the stairs, just listening. It was harder to find Jeremy now that he was a vampire too. He'd made so much more noise as a human. Damon descended the stairs and crossed through the living room. He poured himself a drink, and as an afterthought poured a second for Jeremy, figuring it couldn't hurt.

He found Jeremy downstairs, standing in front of the cooler like he was trying to decide whether he was hungry or not.

"Midnight snack?" Damon asked, handing Jeremy his drink. Jeremy shrugged and turned away from the cooler. He wrapped his hand around Damon's wrist, and tugged him back towards the door. They moved wordlessly through the house, until they were back upstairs. Damon reached over and flipped on the bedside light, certain neither of them was going to sleep again anytime soon, before slipping into bed next to Jeremy and sitting up against the headboard. Jeremy was stretched out on his stomach, his chin propped up on his crossed arms, and for a long time he just looked at Damon.

"Is everything all right?"

"Just thinking." Jeremy said, frowning a little bit.

"Something I can help with?"

Jeremy sighed, "Do you miss feeding on humans?"

"Yeah. Sometimes."

"Then why don't you do it?"

"Blood from a terrified human isn't as good. There's usually some form of seduction involved."

"What about compelling them?"

"It's easier to do it afterwards. Better chance it will stick."

"Okay." Jeremy said. "I still don't see what's stopping you."

Damon frowned. "Babe, you and I have been doing the monogamy thing for like a year now, haven't we?"

"Yeah. But I was human then, so this wasn't an issue."

"Are you telling me you _want_ me to go out and sleep with other people so I can drink their blood?"

"Don't _you_ want to?"

Damon couldn't help snorting in amusement. "Don't be stupid, Jer."

Jeremy scowled. "You always tell me not to be stupid. Why can't you just say exactly what you mean for once?"

"Babe." Damon slid down the bed so he was curled on his side next to Jeremy. His hand threaded into Jeremy's hair, forcing the younger man to look at him. "It's never been about whether you're a vampire or a human. I thought you knew that."

"But I'm so different now."

"Not in the ways that matter."

"But—

Damon captured Jeremy's lips in a hard kiss, silencing his protests.

Jeremy pulled away, his expression still wary. "You're sure you don't want to trade me in for someone a little less…dead?"

Damon wanted to brush this question away with a joke and a grin, but he could tell Jeremy was going to need more reassurance than that, or this would be something that ate away at him until he got it into his head to do something stupid, like _leave_, because he thought Damon would be better off. Jeremy needed brutal honesty, and as much as it terrified Damon to say this out loud, he knew he had to.

"Jeremy, I'm not going anywhere. Ever. I love you and I know that people throw those words around so much that they barely mean anything, but it's different for us. Love is the one thing that makes being a vampire worthwhile. So the only way you're going to get rid of me is if you tell me you don't love me and you don't want me around anymore."

"Not gonna happen," Jeremy said, and he was finally smiling again. He relaxed, looping an arm around Damon's waist and pulling him closer. Damon nuzzled his face into Jeremy's neck, Jeremy's arms folding around him and their legs intertwining. Jeremy pressed their lips together, murmuring things Damon couldn't quite hear between lazy kisses.


	44. Curiosity

_**A/N: Shout out to **_**Vesuvious**_** for giving me a prompt to get me through my writer's block on this one.**_

**_Random spoilers for True Blood in this one. Nothing specific, but I figure I ought to mention it._**

_**

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Jeremy stood in front of the refrigerator, surveying its contents and trying to decide if he wanted to venture into the world of human food again. Damon said it would be fine, but Jeremy just didn't miss food enough to attempt eating it. He was doing just fine with blood bags right now. Maybe eventually he would miss the taste of a great burger or his sweet tooth might kick in again, but for the time being he just wasn't interested in food.

He wandered back to the living room, where Jenna was cuing up the DVD player. They'd been halfway through season three of _True Blood_ when Jeremy was turned, and now that things had calmed down, post-turning and post-Hank, Jenna had insisted that they finish so they could start on the next season. He wasn't sure if the irony of watching a vampire TV show with her vampire nephew had occurred to Jenna yet, mostly because she was sleep-deprived.

Rick and Hank were having a father-son bonding night, which basically meant that Rick was upstairs taking care of Hank while Jenna watched TV with Jeremy, since the month-old baby wasn't quite old enough to appreciate much else besides a bottle and a rocking chair.

Jeremy got comfortable on the couch next to Jenna and she handed him the clicker.

"You do that. I always press the wrong buttons and break the TV."

Jeremy grinned, because Jenna really was notoriously bad with technology. She couldn't even work her iPod, and Jeremy had thought those were idiot proof.

"I don't get what it is about Sookie." Jenna commented halfway through the episode, frowning at the TV. "She's a waitress and, yeah okay she can read minds or whatever, but I don't see what makes her so special. And yet she's got several vampires, a shape shifter and various other supernatural creatures chasing around after her." Jenna grabbed a handful of popcorn. "You're a vampire. Explain it."

Jeremy snorted. "Jenna, I've been a vampire for a month. Maybe you should ask Damon."

Jenna rolled her eyes, "Damon doesn't appreciate trashy television."

"That's true."

"So spill. Give me your insider info on what makes Sookie so great."

"I don't have insider info. It's a TV show. It's not real."

"I know _that_." She ate another handful of popcorn, her expression thoughtful. "Is it accurate, though?"

"Seriously?" Jeremy asked.

Jenna nodded. "I'm curious. I've asked Rick some stuff, but he obviously doesn't know everything."

"Neither do I."

"Still, you know more about the stuff I care about."

"Like what?"

"How you're doing."

"It's an adjustment, but I'm okay."

"That sounds like the world's biggest understatement, Jer. You were human and now you're _not_."

"I could have been dead though." Jeremy said, and Jenna flinched. "Sorry."

"No. You're right. I don't regret letting Damon turn you."

"Me neither. It's been…weird. But okay."

"Weird how?"

"Well, the drinking blood thing took some getting used to—just out of blood bags, in case you were wondering."

Jenna looked a little bit relieved at that, and Jeremy figured she was justified in hoping he didn't become a horror-story vampire.

"True Blood has the super-strength and super-speed thing right. I was breaking almost everything I picked up for the first few days. And Damon likes to play tag now that I've actually got a decent chance of keeping up—although, he's faster because he's older, so it's not exactly fair. And I'm still not used to the fangs. I've bitten through my lip a couple times. Damon thinks it's hilarious."

Jenna winced. "Doesn't that hurt?"

Jeremy shrugged, "It heals in a couple seconds."

Jenna digested this for a moment, before saying quietly, "I really can't believe you're going to live forever."

"You aren't the only one." Jeremy admitted. "I still can't wrap my mind around it, and I've known about vampires a lot longer than you have."

"I'm assuming you won't age."

Jeremy shook his head. "Eighteen forever."

"Are you okay with that?"

"It isn't ideal," Jeremy admitted. "But Stefan seems to do okay. Although I have no intention of spending the rest of eternity in high school."

"I don't blame you." Jenna smiled. "High school is a truly miserable place. Although I still think you should give college a try, if just for the experience."

"I know you do. Maybe someday. It's not going anywhere, right? Damon's done the college thing a few times. I think Stefan has a few degrees too."

"Show offs." Jenna grinned. "I still haven't managed to finish grad school. It's been a crazy few years."

Jeremy nodded. He stuck his hand in his pocket, pulling out the ring he'd worn until a month ago. He handed it to Jenna. "Rick wasn't wrong, when he said associating with vampires isn't the safest thing. I think you should have that, just in case. It will protect you. Rick's already got one."

"More magic rings," Jenna rolled her eyes. "Shame it's so ugly."

"Wear it anyway. Damon used to get so pissed at me when I wouldn't."

"You were dating a vampire and you didn't wear your magic ring?" Jenna asked him, incredulous.

"I trust him," Jeremy said.

"That much is obvious." Jenna slipped the ring onto her middle finger. It spun loosely but didn't slide off past her knuckle easily, so Jeremy figured it would work fine. "Thanks, Jer," she said, and he knew it wasn't just about the ring.

"No problem." He wrapped his aunt in a one-armed hug.

"All right," Jenna said, "Enough of the sappy stuff. We've got some trashy TV to get caught up on. Feel free to point out any glaring vampire inaccuracies."


	45. Yours

_**A/N: So this is slightly angstier than usual…**_

**_Also, I apologize in advance if there are problems with the link for this chapter. I've tried to upload it twice now with no success. Hopefully the third time will be the charm. _**

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Something was wrong. As May became June, Damon watched as Jeremy started to wander the boardinghouse like a caged animal. Halfway though June, Jeremy had all but moved out, spending most of his nights with Jenna and Rick and Hank, leaving Damon alone, while Stefan sent him sympathetic glances and murmured patronizing words about couples and rough patches.

The further Jeremy drifted away from him, the harder Damon felt like he needed to cling, because he wasn't about to let the most important thing in his life disappear. On the nights Jeremy did stay at the boardinghouse, Damon fell asleep wrapped around him, holding tightly and almost always woke up alone, or with Jeremy sleeping as far away as possible.

He tried not to think about it now, when he was buried inside of Jeremy and trying to fuck away whatever was wrong, but he couldn't help it, especially since this was obviously a Jeremy who was just going through the motions. Damon pulled out and rolled away from his boyfriend, wondering idly how destroyed he was going to be when Jeremy left. Because that seemed like the only possible outcome of all of this distance. Jeremy would drift until he disappeared completely from Damon's life, and Damon would be left alone. Again. He'd always thought Lexi was spouting bullshit when she talked about the way vampires could love, until it happened to him. He supposed when all this was over, he could track down Katherine again. It would be violent and toxic and miserable, but it would probably hurt less than this did now.

Jeremy's hand landed on his hip and Damon rolled to his other side, facing Jeremy reluctantly. "What?"

"I think maybe we should talk."

Damon sneered. "I'd rather not do the long-drawn-out goodbye, thanks."

Jeremy blinked slowly at him. "What the fuck are you talking about Damon?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Gilbert. I know you want to leave." Jeremy looked immediately guilty and Damon shook his head. "That's what I thought. So just go, okay. We don't have to talk about it."

"Obviously we do, because you don't get it."

"Sure I do. You made a mistake, choosing me and now that you've got the rest of eternity, you want to see what else is out there. So go ahead. I was on my own for a hundred and fifty years before you, I'm sure I can manage without you." The worst part of that statement was knowing that neither of them actually believed it.

"Day," Jeremy said softly. "I feel like I want to crawl out of my own skin. I'm claustrophobic and trapped and—

"What part of I don't fucking want to talk about it aren't you getting?" Damon snapped.

"Would you just listen to me for a second?" Jeremy snarled. "It's this fucking _town_ I want to leave, not you." Jeremy sighed. "I can't stay here forever. I sort of thought we agreed on that."

Damon was torn between laughing and shouting at Jeremy for letting them get into this tangled misunderstanding. "Of course we agree on that. So why didn't you just say something instead of turning into a total zombie?" Damon scowled.

"You seemed pretty happy with the way things were, hanging out with Jenna and Rick and you get along so well with the baby and I just figured if you were happy here, I could make it work too. Only I can't, obviously."

"Jesus, Jeremy." Damon sighed. "I was only doing all of that because I thought you would want to stick around for awhile. I mean yeah, the baby's pretty fucking adorable, but if Jenna calls me at two in the morning one more time, begging me to come over because he won't stop crying and I'm the fucking baby whisperer or whatever, I'm going to leave whether or not you come with me."

"So the road trip is back on then?"

"Yes."

"When can we leave?"

"As soon as fucking possible."

"This weekend?"

"Yes."

"Good." Jeremy nodded. "Now that that's settled, there's something else we need to clear up."

Damon frowned, "What?"

Jeremy covered Damon's body with his own, pressing him into the soft mattress. "You need to stop worrying about me leaving you. I'm not going anywhere without you, Day. Do you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm yours."

Damon leaned up, capturing Jeremy's lips in a fierce kiss, his tongue pushing past Jeremy's teeth and his hands tangling roughly into Jeremy's hair. Jeremy was his, the only one who'd ever _wanted_ to be his, and Damon wasn't ever going to let that go.


	46. Anywhere

_**A/N: So I've been keeping this on the down low, but this is the last chapter. I've loved writing this story so much, and I can't thank all of you enough for reading and reviewing (or lurking). So I hope you enjoy this last one. **_**:)**

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Jeremy slipped out of the living room where Rick, Stefan and Damon were watching a baseball game and Elena and Jenna were cooing at Hank. He climbed the stairs and crossed the threshold into his bedroom. It had the sort of stale, dusty smell he associated with libraries, but he thought that was actually his imagination, considering he'd slept here just last week.

He checked the closet and his dresser drawers, looking for any clothes he might want to pack last minute, but almost everything he actually wore had made it to the boardinghouse over the course of the past eighteen months. The realization that he and Damon had been together for almost two years actually sent a jolt down his spine. It was the sort of thing he had a hard time wrapping his mind around if he thought to hard about it.

Next he checked his desk, finding half-full sketchbooks that he couldn't help thumbing through. He didn't find anything in them he wanted to bring with, so he dropped them back into the top drawer. The second drawer was mostly clutter—scraps of paper, pens that had run out of ink, et cetera—and when he felt his finger start to burn, he withdrew his hand quickly, realizing one of the vervain bracelets Elena had given him was in there. He probably ought to dig it out and chuck it in the trash, but he didn't feel like getting burned again. The third drawer was filled with more clutter, and Jeremy figured if he couldn't think of anything he was missing, he wasn't likely to find anything he really wanted in the second of the junk drawers.

He checked under his bed, and only found dust bunnies and a lost flip-flop. He heard footsteps on the stairs, almost silent ones, so he figured it was either Damon or Stefan. He was sitting on his bed when Damon reached his room, and the other vampire looked at him warily.

"How's it going?"

Jeremy shrugged, "There's nothing in here I want to bring."

"Really?" Damon stepped into the room, glancing around. "Not even this _adorable_ picture of you and Elena?" He grabbed the picture frame and passed it to Jeremy with a smirk. Jeremy snorted; he and Elena were twelve and thirteen, very much in their awkward phases, fishing off the dock at the lake house.

"No. That can definitely stay."

Damon grinned. "You're not bringing your noise cancelling headphones either. Stefan will be crushed."

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "My new hearing is too good. They don't cancel any noise. And my iPod got totally smashed in the crash anyway."

"Guess that means I'll be in charge of music tomorrow."

"If you play any Journey, I'll get out of the car and walk."

Damon laughed and flopped backwards onto the bed, pulling Jeremy down with him.

"Jenna didn't seem happy when we told her we were going." Jeremy said softly.

"She'll be okay. Besides she had to know we weren't going to stay here forever."

"She did. But I think there was a part of her that was hoping we would."

"We'll be back soon enough, considering we were blackmailed into being here for at least one major holiday and Hank's birthday."

"Yeah, Jenna's kind of a blackmail ninja that way."

"Are _you_ okay?" Damon asked.

Jeremy nodded. "Yeah. We need to get out of this town."

"I know. But leaving home the first time is…a big deal. I was terrified when I did."

"You were also going off to war."

"That's true. But leaving home is leaving home, regardless of the circumstances."

Jeremy turned his head to look at Damon. "My definition of home has changed over the past couple years."

Jeremy wasn't about to turn into a total sap and start quoting Billy Joel to Damon, especially because he knew the other vampire was smart enough to figure it out. A slow smile spread across Damon's face, and he curled his hand around the back of Jeremy's neck, pulling him into a searing kiss, their tongues sliding together and their hands roaming across each other's bodies.

Jeremy pulled away reluctantly when Damon slipped a hand into the waistband of his jeans. "Don't start something we can't finish."

"There's nothing stopping us, babe." Damon said, trailing kisses across Jeremy's jaw.

"How about the fact that everybody is downstairs and they're going to come looking for us any minute?"

"So? We're leaving tomorrow." Damon murmured against Jeremy's neck. "The next time we see them, the awkwardness will have definitely worn off."

"Sorry, Day. But there's no way the last thing I'm leaving them with is that mental picture."

"Fine." Damon sighed. "Tease."

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Let's go home. We've got an early start tomorrow, and hanging out here all night is just going to depress me and I want to be happy about going."

"All right." Damon stood up and offered his hand to Jeremy, pulling his boyfriend to his feet.

Jeremy walked out of his childhood bedroom hand-in-hand with Damon.

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Damon woke at an ungodly hour the next morning and couldn't manage to fall back asleep, despite how comfortable he was curled up next to Jeremy. He slipped out of bed and showered quickly. Once he was dressed, he did a cursory glance over the room, checking to see if he'd forgotten to pack anything. His room wasn't like Jeremy's. He wasn't a collector; he didn't hang onto most things, because there wasn't anything that were going to last as long as he would. Stefan liked to hoard memorabilia from his past, but Damon was perfectly happy to keep nothing but his collection of movies and music. And even then, he kept them here, rather than dragging them with him everywhere he went. He knew the difference, of course. Stefan had things in his past he wanted to remember, while Damon's past was filled with things he wanted to forget.

He glanced over to find Jeremy watching him, his eyes still drowsy, and Damon couldn't help remembering the first morning he'd woken up with Jeremy here. It was startling to think how easily Jeremy had wormed his way into Damon's life, becoming a permanent fixture before Damon had even realized he wanted him to stay.

Jeremy dressed quickly and they made the bed together before walking down into the kitchen. Damon grabbed blood bags from the refrigerator and passed one to Jeremy. They had breakfast standing hip-to-hip, leaning against the counter.

After checking the living room one last time, they walked out the front door into the July sunshine. They'd packed up the car last night, and Damon sort of wished he drove an SUV instead of the Camaro; even if it was light on space, though, the Camaro was just cooler for a road trip.

Jeremy hopped over the door into the passenger seat, shooting Damon a grin. Damon folded himself into the driver's seat and started the engine. It rumbled to life and Damon turned to face Jeremy.

"Where are we going?"

"Fucking anywhere," Jeremy laughed.

Damon nodded and shifted the Camaro into gear, backing out of the driveway and onto the road. Once they were on the highway and Jeremy had found a radio station that didn't sound like the type that would ever play Journey, Damon reached across the gearshift and laced his fingers with Jeremy's, settling in for the drive.


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